DETROIT (Ticker) — Detroit Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky on Monday said he would test free agency rather than accept the team’s contract offer to return in a backup role, according to a published report.
After starting seven games for the winless Lions this past season, Orlovsky told the Detroit Free Press that he has had a hard time understanding how Dante Culpepper was just given the starting job.
“You question how come he just got given the job,” Orlovsky told the newspaper. “I mean, you’re not going to restructure somebody’s deal and say, ‘Oh, it’s a competition.’ So it’s tough.
“I think looking at the film and watching Sundays and looking at the statistics, it doesn’t make sense why the move was made to me, from my end.”
A backup for his first three seasons in Detroit, Orlovsky took over for Jon Kitna and completed 143 of 255 passes for 1,616 yards with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Culpepper was signed midseason after Orlovsky suffered a broken thumb - and struggled mightily. He was pulled in four of his five starts.