Bills QB Kyle Orton announces retirement

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Speculation had run rampant in the last few weeks regarding what Kyle Orton would decide to do with the player option he held on his two-year contract in 2015.

The 10-year NFL veteran ended all the talk Monday morning when he surprisingly announced his retirement from football.

"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," the 31-year-old Orton said in the locker room as the rest of his former Buffalo Bills teammates — who had no idea this was going to happen — were cleaning out their lockers.

Orton took over as the starting quarterback in Week 5 when coach Doug Marrone decided he'd seen enough of EJ Manuel after a 2-2 start. Orton helped the Bills win three of four games in October, but the second half of the season did not go as well. Buffalo went 4-4 and, despite the first winning record in 10 years, 9-7 wasn't good enough to make the playoffs.

On the surface, it appeared Orton had a pretty good season. In just 12 games, he threw for 3,018 yards, completing 64.2% of his passes with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for a passer rating of 87.2.

However, some of those numbers were skewed in garbage time during games the Bills lost. And the reality was that Orton was sub-par, and it was clear the Bills had big decisions to make at that position moving forward.

Orton's retirement takes him out of the equation, but where Buffalo goes next is uncertain. It's clear coach Doug Marrone has lost faith in Manuel, the free agent market is filled with mediocrity, and the Bills don't have a first-round draft pick in 2015.

Orton completed his career — during which he played for the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys and the Bills — with 18,037 passing yards, 101 touchdowns and 69 interceptions.

"Anytime you have a chance to end on a good note and go home and spend time with family, that's really important to me and my wife, and we're just excited to move on," he said. "It's not a decision based on anything football-wise, just a family decision and one I'm going to stick to."

Running back Fred Jackson was stunned by the news.

"It's one of those things, in talking to him, I didn't expect him to announce it so soon, or to announce it at all," Jackson said. "I'll kind of pick his brain and see what made him decide to do so. But you got to respect it."

Orton's retirement leaves Manuel and Jeff Tuel as the only quarterbacks on the roster.

"It's one of those things where everything is going to be evaluated in the offseason anyway," Jackson said of Orton's departure. "I can't say that it's a setback. I can't say that it helps us."

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Maiorana writes for the (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle