I am going to disagree with my editor over here on SB Nation Kansas City and I will go as far to say that Scott Pioli nailed the deal for Kyle Orton. Well waiver wire deal I should say. The Chiefs fanbase needed something to get excited about and $2.5 million dollars to pick up Kyle Orton is a steal for this team right now.
I wasn't necessarily on-board with the idea before it happened, but thinking about it a little bit more has me realizing that this is something that will have people talking about the Chiefs for the next few weeks. Most fans don't like hearing that decisions like this could have business consequences and motives, but everything must be looked at from a business point of view as well as an on-the-field view. Chiefs fans have been pissed off for a few weeks now and since we learned that Tyler Palko isn't going to be the saviour, the thought of watching him start over the next few weeks wasn't something that any Chiefs fan was going to want to watch. We all would because it's our team, but we'd be Tivo'ing RGIII and Matt Barkley at the same time. Now we can watch Orton before we watch those Tivo'ed games.
The truth of the matter is that the Chiefs are a better team today than they were yesterday. We won't know which Kyle Orton we're going to see, whether it be the 2009 version who threw for 3800 yards and 21 touchdowns, or the 2011 version who was benched for a quarterback who completes two passes and beats our Chiefs.
This is a low-risk, medium-reward type of move and the only person that should feel uncomfortable about this move (other than the Bears) is Matt Cassel. If Orton doesn't play well, it'll just be "SEE, he's not the answer either!". But if he does play well it'll be "SEE how many QB's out there are better than Cassel". Either way, Cassel doesn't look good in this situation.
The Chiefs will also get to play a Chicago Bears team in a couple of weeks that won't be as good without Orton. It's still going to be a tough game but between that Bears game and the Denver Broncos game coming up on January 1st, there are two storylines that could have made an otherwise meaningless game have a little something extra that people will want to tune in to see.
Makes sense on the field because Orton is a much accurate down-the-field passer than Palko or Cassel. Our best three players on offense right now are all receivers, and this gives us a quarterback that has had success throwing the ball downfield and could use the weapons we have to do something positive.
If it makes sense on the field, which it does, and off the field, which it does, it's a perfect deal for the Chiefs. I believe too many people could be overthinking this deal and the bottom line is the Chiefs are better now than they were yesterday, Chiefs fans are more excited than they were yesterday. More people will watch the Chiefs for the rest of the year because of what they did today, and Chiefs fans have reason to be more optimistic about tomorrow. Orton may not be Tom Brady, but he's not Tyler Palko either.