"He stood in the Chiefs locker room, a stranger, answering questions about how he'll handle the expectation, fair or not, of saving this team in distress.

"I'm just going to be myself," quarterback Kyle Orton said. "I think guys can see through a lot of the phony stuff."

What Orton is, or has shown himself to be during his seven NFL seasons and a high-profile career at Purdue, is complicated. He has at times been a leader and a pouter, a man of fortitude and a kid showing that youth isn't so easy to shake. The quarterback who won over a Chicago Bears locker room with a 15-2 home record and a rare way of rallying teammates is the same man who raised eyebrows during his rookie season after photographs of Orton at a bar circulated on the Internet.

Later, he mostly avoided reporters in Denver after being benched this season for Tim Tebow. When Orton did speak, as he did in early August, he sometimes said things like this: "My last goal playing quarterback is to win over the fans."

He's not an easy player to figure out, and that's nothing new.

"Some of the things he did," former Purdue coach Joe Tiller said, "got him in a little bit of a jackpot."

Orton is a competitor and a family man — committed to mastering a game that has made him rich and famous, but willing to put it aside, as he did last week upon joining the Chiefs after the team's waiver claim, if family matters arise.

The Chiefs and Kansas City have no idea yet what they'll get from Orton, but they at least know what they need from him. This team, at 4-7 and churning through the quicksand of a four-game losing streak, needs a leader. Orton has the experience and the pedigree. Among other unknowns — for now, Tyler Palko remains the Chiefs' starter, though Orton could play today at Soldier Field in Chicago — is how committed he is to being the man his new team needs him to be, or even playing that role for five more weeks."