Stephen A. Smith urges ESPN to ‘cherish’ Dan Orlovsky before he gets poached

Dan Orlovsky doesn’t appear to be on the verge of leaving ESPN any time soon, but Stephen A. Smith warned the network against tempting him.

Monday morning on First Take, Smith ripped Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys for never having the inclination to hire Troy Aikman as an advisor the way the Miami Dolphins did this offseason. And while urging Jones and the Cowboys to cherish their own, Smith flipped the script on ESPN, telling his bosses to cherish Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick, and Ryan Clark before they get poached.

“To the bosses at ESPN, we need to cherish the people that we have, I don’t think Dan Orlovsky’s gonna be here too much longer, because this man knows his damn football and somebody gonna get smart enough and scoop him up” – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/bLsPPuUHLL

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 6, 2026

“I’m gonna say this on national television to the bosses at ESPN, we need to cherish the people that we have. I don’t think Dan Orlovsky’s gonna be here too much longer, because this man knows his damn football and somebody gonna get smart enough and scoop him up,” Smith said. “Somebody is gonna come to their damn senses and give Louis Riddick a GM job…somebody is gonna scoop up Ryan Clark who is obviously a brilliant football analyst. They’re gonna scoop him up! We have very elite minds here in the sport of football, right here at this network.”

Smith was likely referring to Orlovsky being hired by an NFL team considering the former backup quarterback has previously touted his interest in coaching. Smith has similarly pitched Riddick for front office positions, and earlier this year, he claimed the Pittsburgh Steelers should have considered Ryan Clark for their head coaching vacancy.

But the timing of this rant from Smith is still interesting in the wake of ESPN removing Orlovsky from their Monday Night Football booth B-team. It also comes at a time where ESPN is assuming control NFL Network and can begin integrating talent into its own programming.

Orlovsky notably signed a multiyear contract extension with ESPN last summer after fielding offers from CBS, so he doesn’t appear to be leaving any time soon. But that Monday Night Football gig was important to him. Last year, Orlovsky joined the Awful Announcing Podcast and candidly shared aspirations of succeeding Troy Aikman in ESPN’s lead Monday Night Football booth someday.

Surely, Orlovsky and every other football analyst at ESPN is curious about how they might look to integrate NFL Network talent amid the merger. But before ESPN even thinks about bringing NFL Network talent to its studio, Stephen A. Smith seems hellbent on reminding them who they already have first.