After serving as the Bills’ starting quarterback for most of the 2014 season, Kyle Orton has decided to call it a career, the team announced today in a press release. Orton will retire from the NFL after spending 10 seasons in the league.
“I just have been going at it for 10 years and it’s just a family decision and I’ve decided to get home and be a dad and call it a day,” Orton said.
Orton, 32, flirted with retirement a year ago as well, and his apparent willingness to end his career at that point led to the Cowboys releasing him from his contract, at which point he inked a new deal with the Bills. In this case, he appears to be more committed to ending his career, despite the fact that he has a year remaining on his contract. By retiring, Orton will no longer be eligible to earn his $5.4MM non-guaranteed base salary for 2015, though he’ll still count for $1.5MM in dead money against the Bills’ cap.
Assuming Orton doesn’t play another NFL game, he’ll finish his career with a 42-40 record as a starter, completing 59.5% of his career passes, with 18,037 yards, 101 touchdowns, and 69 interceptions. His best stastical seasons came in 2009 and 2010 for the Broncos, when he topped 20 touchdown passes and 3,600 passing yards for the only two times in his career.
As for the Bills, they’ll likely be on the lookout for a new signal-caller this offseason, since E.J. Manuel is currently the only quarterback on the roster. Unfortunately for Buffalo, the team sent its 2015 first-round pick to Cleveland in this year’s Sammy Watkins trade, so if the team hopes to land a potential starting QB, it’ll have to be either in free agency or later in the draft.