AP

Kyle Orton is heading to Kansas City.

Orton, the quarterback who was waived by the Broncos on Tuesday, was picked up by the Chiefs today, according to multiple reports. With Matt Cassel out for the season, Orton shouldn’t need much time to move ahead of Tyler Palko on the depth chart and become the starter in Kansas City.

The development is bad news for the Bears, who reportedly wanted to bring Orton in after Jay Cutler suffered a broken thumb. The Bears will now go with Caleb Hanie until Cutler is healthy.

We don’t yet know how many teams put in claims for Orton. It could make sense for teams competing with the Bears for a wild-card berth — like the Lions, Falcons, Cowboys and Giants — to put in a claim on Orton just to block him from going to the Bears. But that’s now a moot point: The team that took Orton is a team that desperately needs to improve at the quarterback position in a hurry.

Despite reports that Orton didn’t want to go to the Chiefs, he won’t have much choice: The Chiefs own his rights. Now we’ll see whether he can get things going in Kansas City in time to help them compete for the AFC West — including a big game in Denver in Week 17.