Monday, August 29, 2005

Orton moves up and Benson signs up

The obvious was finally announced yesterday when the Bears named Kyle Orton the starter at quarterback for the season opener at Washington. Orton will be the tenth player to start a game at QB for the Bears in the 21st century, provided he doesn't get hurt between now and then. A few hours after the Orton announcement, Cedric Benson finally deigned to join the team and signed his deal.

Orton may be the most talented QB to ever take a snap from a Bears center. This says a lot more about the history of the position with the Bears than it does Orton. For example, the Bears have only 45 300-yard passing games in the entire team history. Warren Moon had 49 in his career by himself. Hopefully, Orton will end up being the most successful as well, but I'd settle for getting through the year in one piece and never seeing Jeff Blake on the field. That alone, regardless of the stats, would be the best performance by a Bear QB in five years.

As for Cedric Benson, here's hoping he reminds us more of Neal Anderson than Curtis Enis, but I'm not at all optimistic about that.

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