Michael Silver of Yahoo! hung out with Brian Urlacher over the weekend, and he wrote about it. You should read the piece, because it’s an interesting, candid look at what Urlacher’s life is like during a frustrating season, one in which he essentially has no part in.

Also, there is this:

“Look, I love Jay, and I understand he’s a great player who can take us a long way, and I still have faith in him,” Urlacher said. “But I hate the way our identity has changed. We used to establish the run and wear teams down and try not to make mistakes, and we’d rely on our defense to keep us in the game and make big plays to put us in position to win. Kyle Orton might not be the flashiest quarterback, but the guy is a winner, and that formula worked for us. I hate to say it, but that’s the truth.”

Look, I’m not pointing this out to start some Urlacher vs. Cutler or Orton vs. Cutler war. I’m simply pointing this out because I’m not sure it makes much sense.

The team’s identity change — What is their identity now, by the way? Always playing from behind? — has little to do with Cutler behind center instead of Orton. It’s clear the Bears would still like to establish a run game (Lovie said they’d still be a Chicago Bears Football Team before the season started), but the offensive line is giving Forte nowhere to run. He hasn’t made any plays for himself either. And that defense that makes big plays and puts the team in position to win? They just gave up 576 yards to the Vikings, and have been run over by the likes of the Cardinals and Bengals this season. The run game and sound defense worked for the Bears — Urlacher is right. But the formula isn’t working because the Bears are dividing by zero this season, not because Orton is gone.

I’m sorry, but if Orton is still the quarterback of this team, he’s not going to make the run game or defense any better. These problems definitely still exist. As far as the passing game goes?

Sure, he’d likely have thrown less picks than Cutler this year. But does anyone really think any quarterback can succeed when he’s running and ducking for cover on every snap?

For what it’s worth, Urlacher clarified these comments to the Tribune today.

I’ve been avoiding writing this for some time now, but with Orton’s win on Monday night, and Cutler’s contract extension yesterday, I guess it’s high time, since the whole world is proclaiming Denver has the better quarterback now. The Bears have been hoodwinked, they’re saying.

Look: I’m rooting for Kyle Orton. I liked the guy when he was here. I wish him no ill will. I’ve written this before. And yes, he’s having a better season than Cutler. One look at Football Outsiders can tell you that. He’s only thrown one pick, and it was on a Hail Mary. He’s lead the Broncos to a 6-0 record. He’s having the best season of his career, and I’m extremely happy for the guy.

But let’s consider the situation. Does anyone — even the most ardent of Orton supports — think for one second that on this Bears team, Orton would be doing a better job than Cutler? I can’t fathom how anyone would. The Bears have a horrendous offensive line at the moment, Matt Forte has been pretty much nonexistent and this team, as much as people are loving Johnny Knox, has an average receiving corps, at best.

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Steve Rosenbloom has declared the bye week a bad one for the Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith because, he says, Cedric Benson and Kyle Orton doing well is an indictment of the Bears’ management. In fact he goes so far as to say it should call into question whether Smith and Angelo should keep their jobs.

Let’s put aside how Rosenbloom calls for someone’s job on an average of once a week - I could get a whole post out of that. Let’s also put aside that it’s been five weeks and anyone can have a good third of a season. Rosenbloom’s premise is that Orton and Benson not performing as well in Chicago as they have in their current jobs is the fault of the Bears.

First, there’s Orton. He points out that Orton’s 48 pass attempts was a “month’s worth here.” I’m shocked - shocked - that a quarterback would throw a lot in a game that goes to overtime where his team was down most of the game. But I think Rosenbloom is trying to make the point that the Bears just didn’t give Orton a shot. That’s crazy. Orton threw the ball more than 30 times in nine of the fourteen games he played from start to finish last year. It’s not that the Bears didn’t give him a chance. He went from a team with a bad offensive line and bad receivers to a team with a great line and great receivers. Of course he’s doing well with the Broncos. He’s not a great quarterback, but the pieces surrounding him are a lot better than the ones he had surrounding him in Chicago. You can blame the Bears for not assembling good players on offense, but it’s not like Kyle Orton was being underutilized here.

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When Kyle Orton was injured during the second quarter of Sunday night’s Broncos-Bears game, it was hard to tell what happened. Sure, Orton was bleeding from his right index finger, but how was this possible? After all, it was just Adewale Ogunleye’s left hand colliding with Orton’s right. Did Ogunleye have a long fingernail hiding under his glove? Did he have a knife in there?

Or was it just some freak accident? Turns out that’s pretty much what it was. Per the Denver Post, Orton has an “open dislocation” of the finger. Which means the bone popped out of his skin, causing the bleeding. Gross, bro.

NFL sources said that while Kyle Orton’s injured finger was not fractured, the Broncos quarterback suffered an open dislocation (meaning it penetrated the skin) of the right knuckle.

That would explain the blood dripping from Orton’s finger and the excruciating pain the quarterback endured as the dislocation was popped back into place by trainer Steve “Greek’’ Antonopulos.

Since it’s not a fracture, Orton has yet to be ruled out of the season opener Sept. 13 at Cincinnati, though he won’t be playing in Denver’s final preseason game Thursday. The main problem right now is the stitches that were required to sew up the skin.

This concludes Dr. Ryan hour. Stay tuned next time when we discuss the wacky, wild world of sports hernias.

Wherever Kyle Orton or Rex Grossman go, Chicago Bears fans will follow with at least some interest. Whether it’s the local media peppering small updates now that they’re just starting out with new teams, or Twitter, or “SportsCenter,” they’ll find out about their performance somehow.

Orton’s and Grossman’s mediocrity was discussed all the time in Chicago; whether they rise above it in their new homes, or crash and burn will be of interest to us. (Personally, I’m rooting for both of them, because I’m just that kind of guy.)

Along those lines, here’s a look at what Kyle Orton did this weekend:

Orton was moving the Broncos down the field and had Denver in the red zone when he tossed his first pick. Nate Clements made a nice play on a Kyle Orton ball thrown into the end zone for the interception.

Orton’s next pick was terrible. He set up a Dré Bly interception by staring down his receiver, telegraphing his throw like Alexander Graham Bell. The 49ers scored as a result of the play.

Orton was picked for a third time by backup strong safety Reggie Smith. He finished with a 32.6 passer rating, which speaks for itself on the kind of night it was.

Yeah, that’s three interceptions. This all comes after the boo birds reigned down on him during an open scrimmage in which he threw two picks.

And Grossman?

Houston’s Rex Grossman is expected to miss about a month with a hamstring injury and the Texans are looking to sign another quarterback to fill in until he’s healthy.

Yikes.

As was my motto this morning, it’s but one preseason game, and you can never fault a guy for getting injured (unless he did it in a stupid way on the sidelines or off the field). But yeah: all signs are trending downward at the moment.

With all the Jay Cutler mania sweeping this fair city, we sometimes forget about the other side of the trade: the Broncos are now stuck with Kyle Orton. Their young, Pro Bowl-worthy QB has been replaced by … Kyle Orton.

I don’t think I’d be very happy if I were a Broncos fan right now.

Especially if Orton threw two interceptions and a ton of bad passes in a structured scrimmage last night. Perhaps I would even boo him like the largest crowd in Broncos’ practice history did.

From ESPN:

Orton drew the fans’ ire when he was picked off twice by cornerback Andre’ Goodman, the second of which was returned for a long touchdown.

[ ... ]

Orton also was jeered when he threw behind receiver Chad Jackson, again when he missed a wide-open Jabar Gaffney in the end zone and also when he floated a pass down the middle that Champ Bailey busted up.

“Fans can cheer. They can boo,” Orton said. “We’ve got good fans, and they’re passionate about their football, that’s for sure.”

[ ... ]

The crowd also booed punter Brett Kern for a pair of poor punts and also let kicker Matt Prater have it for missing consecutive 43-yard field goal attempts at the end of the scrimmage, one to the right and one way left.

OK, so it turns Denver fans aren’t just pissed they have Kyle Orton now. Apparently they just hate their whole team.

If there is one thing I will miss from the dearly departed quarterbacking duo of Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton, it’s their greater existence as Internet memes. Grossman was not just a Bloomington, Indiana kid who had an arm that lead him to Florida and eventually the Bears. No, he was the Sex Cannon, and he was going to throw it downfield. Always.

Kyle Orton was not just a Purdue product who managed games for the Bears instead of actually playing the position. No, he was the Neckbeard. He was the dude that once you Google image searched him, it’s all Jack Daniels, all the time. He was the Deadspin Hall of Fame inductee.

With Jay Cutler, I feared that was all gone. But no, I was wrong. Both Page Six and Gawker are reporting Cutler was canoodling with Internet fameball Julia Allison over the weekend at Chicago’s own Club Hub 51. As the photo accompanying this post also shows, Greg Olsen was hanging out with them as well. (If you don’t know who Allison is, this Wired cover story is a good place to start. I admit to knowing an unhealthy amount about her.)

So yes, Cutler hasn’t even taken a snap for the Bears yet, and he’s already hanging out on the town with the poster child for Internet fame — a blog-worthy meme for literally any site that covers the Web, gossip, technology … you name it.

Jay Cutler, relevant after all, yall!

First spotted at KSK.