On why he picked the Rams to beat the Seahawks in the NFC Championship game on First Take this week, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky didn’t say it was because he thinks L.A. is the better team, or that Sam Darnold will make too many mistakes, or that Sean McVay is the best coach in the playoffs. In fact, he said that he was picking the Rams to win even though it’s “wrong”.
“I’d rather be wrong than un-loyal.”
Orlovsky, who has been open about his interest in becoming an offensive coordinator, is close friends with Matthew Stafford, a teammate of his on the Detroit Lions. He was also once signed by McVay to coach Jared Goff, not to be a quarterback for the Rams. Is Orlovsky picking the Rams — a choice that HE SAID WAS “WRONG” — because he wants to be Stafford’s next OC and McVay’s next protege?
The Rams might not lose offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur to a head coaching job, but he’s rumored to be one of the top-three candidates for the Arizona Cardinals according to a report by Adam Schefter. If LaFleur leaves L.A. for a head coaching position, or a different offensive coordinator position (as someone who doesn’t call plays, that’s always on the table), he’ll be the latest in a long line of Rams offensive coordinators to part with the team under McVay.
Does Orlovsky think he has a realistic shot at replacing LaFleur and potentially getting into the NFL coaching pipeline?
With Philip Rivers interviewing to be the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills on Friday, anything is possible.
Last week, Orlovsky told Pat McAfee that he would “love to be the offensive coordinator” of the Lions, if they would have them. They…did not want to have him.
Notably, this would be an apt time for Orlovsky to leave broadcasting for a new career path.
NFL fans are questioning his biases more than ever and his credibility (which is something that only you can judge for yourself believe exists or not) is under fire. On Thursday, Orlovsky for some reason felt the need to apologize to C.J. Stroud for criticizing him after Stroud had one of the worst performances by a quarterback in playoff history. Criticizing Stroud isn’t a problem for an analyst, it’s the job. Apologizing for your analysis? That’s strange and not the job.
But apologizing for doing his job is not unusual for Orlovsky. After all, he’s the same person who in 2021 reported that his sources said Justin Fields was a “last in, first out” player at Ohio State and then a day later apologized for it. Well, which is it? Were you reporting something that wasn’t true and never happened or are you apologizing for doing the job you’re being hired for? Orlovsky never denied his report was true, he just apologized for being a reporter.
Orlovsky’s past with McVay
Saying that you’re not picking the Rams to win, but you’re picking your friend to still like you after today, doesn’t exactly help Orlovsky’s case with the public’s perception of your credibility and biases. It would be different if Orlovsky said, “I’m picking the Rams to win because I believe they’re a better team and I believe Matthew Stafford is going to carry them to a victory.”
There would be nothing wrong with that but it’s not what he said. Even though the rest of ESPN’s crew picked the Seahawks to win, it doesn’t mean that the Seahawks will win. Nobody knows what will happen. Seattle could lose! Orlovksy could have simply said, “I’m picking the Rams. Deal with it.”
Instead, he said that the Rams would lose but he doesn’t care, he’s picking the Rams on the screen so that Matthew Stafford (and Sean McVay) sees it and knows he was “loyal”.
Fine.
But will it get you a job with the Rams like you might think?
One more thing. Orlovsky was on the Rams in 2017, Sean McVay’s first year with the team. He didn’t make the roster, but McVay told him that he would never make the team. The Rams only signed Orlovsky in 2017 because McVay wanted a mentor on the roster for Goff:
“‘You’re not going to do anything in training camp, Dan,’” Orlovsky recalled McVay telling him, via Farrar. “‘I just need you to teach him how to study tape, and teach him about defenses.’ And this isn’t a knock on Jared at all. Jared will tell you this straight up. I go out there, and every day, we would study tape in the meeting rooms. I would then go to Jared’s house and he had spent money, because Jared wanted to learn. He built himself a film study room.”
Orlovsky goes onto say that Goff isn’t “dumb” but that he didn’t know a lot of things that he really should have learned in college, if not high school.
Does Orlovsky think McVay might want him to do the same teaching for a quarterback who L.A. drafts in April? It might make sense if Orlovsky’s connection is Matthew Stafford, a close friend of his, going to bat (or should I say “not being un-loyal”) and saying that he’d be comfortable with Orlovsky as a quarterbacks coach, passing game coordinator, or offensive coordinator.
After all, the Rams are primed to lose more coach than one; Nate Scheelhaase could be leaving too. Coaches could be poached by other teams in the coming weeks. And Orlovsky’s just the type of snake oil salesman to see enough steps down the line to set himself up for a job he wants, whether he’s right for it or not. He did it when he went from one of the worst quarterbacks in NFL history to Twitter to ESPN.
Is his next con job the L.A. Rams?
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