Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

John Fox says Kyle Orton is Broncos’ starter

Minnesota Vikings v Carolina Panthers

CHARLOTTE, NC - DECEMBER 20: Head coach John Fox of the Carolina Panthers against the Minnesota Vikings at Bank of America Stadium on December 20, 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Kevin C. Cox

In a somewhat surprising statement at the NFL Scouting Combine, Broncos coach John Fox named his starting quarterback: Kyle Orton.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s under contract and he’s the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos,” Fox said of Orton, according to multiple reporters passing along his comments on Twitter. “Kyle Orton is our starter.”

Fox downplayed the possibility that Orton could be traded.

That comment comes less than a week after Orton said he had barely heard from Fox and had no idea what his future held in Denver. Those comments suggested that Fox wasn’t overly enthusiastic about keeping Orton around.

But this week’s report that Tim Tebow doesn’t have much support in Denver suggests that Orton won’t be losing his job to last year’s first-round draft pick. Fox’s comments today would seem to confirm that.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Fox will feel differently six or seven months from now (or whenever the NFL season starts) than he does at the moment. But as of right now, Fox is saying that Orton, not Tebow, is his guy.