NFL News: Bills QB Kyle Orton Surprises Team With Retirement Announcement

Buffalo Bills quarterback Kyle Orton just announced on December 29 that he will retire from the NFL.

Yahoo Sports wrote that the 32-year-old, who played 10 seasons as backup quarterback for the Bills, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and Kansas City, surprised his teammates by entering the locker room on Monday morning and then telling everyone that he was going to a meeting. He never returned. Orton said that the current season will be his last.

The quarterback said in a report by BuffaloBills.com, "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."

He continued to say, "I think I've been away from my parents since going to college, so 14 years. 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."

According to Orton, nothing will change his mind at the moment from retiring. Orton said in the same Buffalo Bills report, "No, as I said it's not a decision based on anything football-wise, just a family decision and one I'm going to stick to."

During the last off-season, Orton had been thinking about retirement before signing a one-year contract with the Bills worth around $5 million. He previously came out of a "brief retirement", writes Buffalo News. He had a player option to return for the 2015 NFL season, but he decided to exit. In 2014, Orton passed for at least 3,000 yards for the third time.

Buffalo News in the same report revealed that Bills running back Fred Jackson shared that he was caught unaware of Orton's announcement until reporters informed him.

Jackson said, "That's his choice. Obviously, he was a guy that did some things for us this year, stepped in and played a major role in what we were able to accomplish. But we wish him well. Now, we have to see how EJ 'Manuel' responds, see what the next step is with the front office and things like that and kind of figure out what's going to go down."

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