Dallas Cowboys’ Kyle Orton not bothered by his position in the line-up – NFL News
Dallas Cowboys’ recently-acquired quarterback, Kyle Orton, who is expected to serve as a backup for Tony Romo, seems unbothered by his position in the team and said on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, that he is not worried about playing as a backup.
Orton began his professional National Football League (NFL) career in 2005 with Chicago Bears. He started almost every game in his rookie year owing to an injury to the regular starter.
In the next year, however, he was not given the starting role as the regular quarterback had recovered.
Orton joined Denver Broncos in 2009 as a starter, but his poor performance in his third season with the team forced the management to replace him.
Broncos waived Orton in November 2011 and the player was claimed by Kansas City Chiefs a day later.
Last week, Orton signed a three-year contract with Cowboys.
Orton has played as starter as well as a backup quarterback in his professional NFL career and as he was Chiefs’ starting quarterback, a transition to backup quarterback could hurt his morale.
However, he is looking at this change in a professional manner and said that being a backup quarterback, he feels ready to take the field whenever need arises. He commented:
"Whatever role you have on the team, backup or starter, you're one snap away from being on the field.”
He added:
“I don't know that your mindset ever necessarily changes. Certainly preparation throughout the week changes just a little bit to get yourself ready for the game. You're going from taking 95 percent of the snaps during the week to taking five percent and
taking a lot of scout-team reps.”
Jon Kitna, who recently retired from the NFL, used to serve as Romo’s backup and it was expected that Cowboys will bring someone to fill in the shoes.
The team management had earlier showed complete confidence in Romo and the franchise’s owner and general manager, Jerry Jones, as well as head coach, Jason Garrett, also asserted that Romo would be the starter.
While agreeing to the team philosophy, Orton has said that his goal is to become a good teammate and player and asserted that it has been “my approach throughout my career, whether I was starting or not."
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