Wednesday, September 28, 2011

With Joe Pisarcik retired, Colts settle for Dan Orlovsky

It’s not too surprising the Colts re-signed Dan Orlovsky in the wake of Kerry Collins’ injury, but what I found interesting was the fact that they made him compete against ex-Chief Brodie Croyle for the contract. Croyle is definitely a better pure passer than Orlovsky and probably a more able field general, but his Bob Sanders-like history of injuries and abject unfamiliarity with the Colts’ offense would seem to make his a very, very long shot at best. It doesn’t show much confidence in Dan the Would-be Man.

But why should they have much confidence in him? Weak-armed (though generally accurate on short passes), Orlovsky is not a quick decision maker, can’t make time for himself in the pocket and doesn’t seem to inspire his teammates. Kicking around the league since 2005, Orlovsky has played in 13 games, starting seven and recording a perfect 0-7 record. His actual passing stats haven’t been terrible (272-150-1,679-8-8/71.2), but that has been inflated by throwing mainly safe, short and ultimately ineffective passes. Do I even have to bring up the Jaren Allen incident?

In preseason, the Colts gave Orlovsky every opportunity to wrest the pseudo-starting job away from Curtis Painter. But in 54 attempts, he completed just 25 and played so well they signed Collins, named Painter the No. 2 guy and stashed young Brian Hartline (no great shakes as a prospect himself) on the practice squad, letting Orlovsky walk.

Kind of makes you wonder what Nate Davis is up to these days.

1 comment:

Roy said...

The Colts always have assumed that Manning would be healthy, and drafted accordingly. There were so many needs on defense that a young QB or a veteran to back up Manning must have seemed like a luxury they could not afford.

The reality is that any QB available this late probably has major holes in his game.