ESPN may soon be hemorrhaging NFL analysts after Jeff Saturday agreed to leave the Worldwide Leader for an interim head coaching job with the Indianapolis Colts.
With Saturday officially at the helm in Indianapolis, he’s now former colleagues with ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky. But that may soon change, as Orlovsky wouldn’t rule out the possibility of joining Saturday’s coaching staff during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday morning.
“Did Jeff Saturday offer you a job to be the quarterbacks coach with the Colts?” Patrick asked Orlovsky.
“Not directly, no,” Orlovsky said. “I texted with him yesterday. ‘Hey man, good luck go crush it’ type of thing. We decided to touch base later. So no, he didn’t directly offer me anything.”
Dan Orlovsky (@DanOrlovsky7) shares his thoughts on the #Colts hiring Jeff Saturday as their interim Head Coach and discusses the possibility of him coaching on Jeff's staff pic.twitter.com/s13G6BZdsQ
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) November 8, 2022
Orlovsky added that he won’t be lobbying for a job in Indianapolis. But it sounds like he doesn’t need to, with Saturday already well-aware of his former colleague’s coaching interest.
“I won’t lobby,” Orlovsky told Patrick. “I’ve made myself pretty clear to Jeff. I want to coach one day. I’m very much so interested in it. Candidly, as the days go on and on I get more and more interested in it. You miss that part of football. I love what I get to do at ESPN right now. I love working for a guy like Jimmy Pitaro. I love working with the people I get to work with on a daily basis. I have a lot of friends who coach in the league, we talk all the time, they know where I stand.”
The Colts already have a coaching staff in place so it might be hard for Saturday to bring in Orlovsky, Mina Kimes, Marcus Spears and whoever else to help create a Midwest version of Bristol before shedding the interim tag. But this isn’t the first time Orlovsky has been mentioned about possibly transitioning from broadcasting to an NFL sideline.
In 2020, Adam Schefter reported several teams contacted Orlovsky to gauge his interest in joining their offensive coaching staff. Orlovsky’s visibility at ESPN has increased in recent years with Monday Night Football assignments and regular segments on NFL Live, Get Up and First Take. He doesn’t have any coaching experience, however, but Jim Irsay just proved that doesn’t necessarily matter.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com