EJ was not close to what Orton was in college. EJ was surrounded by ridiculous talent and had a great defense. EJ was incapable of carrying his team and Jimbo relied on him to not turn the ball over and that's it. Orton carried his college team despite and playing with zero NFL talent but had an off the charts senior year playing through injuries. And that's when the Big 10 was good.
I get that EJ is young and QBs can develop later in their careers (rare at best). However EJ was never a great QB in college. He was good and that's all. He wasn't Jameis, Tebow, Cam, Dak, VY or JF who single handedly made ridiculous plays to keep their teams in games. He never displayed the skills to win a football game by himself, not once. So why is he all of a suddens going to "develop" in the NFL? Because he's big? Good looking and nice? He ran a fast 40 (despite being stiff with no fluidity)? Because he throws a tight spiral? He's always been inaccurate and unable to read defenses and go through his progressions. Those two attributes are more important than anything else and EJ simply doesn't have them.