The Kansas City Chiefs were awarded QB Kyle Orton around 3:00 p.m. (Arrowhead Time) on Wednesday afternoon and it took more than two days to get him to KC for his first practice. Kent Babb of the KC Star reports Orton went through his first practice as a Chief on Friday night. The Chiefs are practicing at night to get acclimated to that environment given they're playing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football.
So if Orton just got his first practice in on Friday night then the chances of him playing meaningful snaps on Sunday have to be really, really low.
Chiefs coach Todd Haley said this week they're ahead of the game in getting him ready to play but, with all due respect, what Haley says doesn't really matter. (The Matt Cassel injury showed us NFL teams will outright lie to us if there's believed to be a competitive advantage at stake.) What really matters is what Haley actually does and right now what he's doing is giving the first team snaps to Tyler Palko (and saying he's the starter) with Orton absent this week.
Is there anyway Orton plays on Sunday night? Maybe the Chiefs set up a package for him so that he can be active on Sunday night. Give him a handful of plays to know and, if the game gets out of hand, get Orton out there in some game action. Maybe they'll do something like that.
But as far as meaningful snaps, like Carson Palmer starting the second half in his Oakland debut? I just don't see it.