NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky is a genial family man and goofball, prone to strange food takes, and valuable to ESPN for his film breakdowns without becoming a caricature.

However, he’s also developed a reputation, fairly or not, for playing favorites with his analysis, especially when it comes to quarterbacks. Even Stephen A. Smith once said that Orlovsky lacks objectivity when discussing NFL signal-callers, while FS1’s Nick Wright took him to task for his inability to criticize QBs.

Last season, Orlovsky became public enemy No. 1 in Baltimore after he spent much of the year saying Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen deserved to be the MVP over Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. He eventually snapped from the vitriolic responses and had to apologize.

In the year since, Orlovsky’s appreciation for Allen hasn’t subsided, and critics have zeroed in on that, much in the same way Tony Romo or Cris Collinsworth seem to fawn over him.

That came to a head this past weekend when the Bills lost to the Denver Broncos, in large part due to Allen’s four turnovers, including a costly fumble just before halftime. Orlovsky broke down the play on social media and, in a viral clip, seemed to blame Buffalo’s offensive linemen for failing to recover the fumble rather than Allen.

Dan Orlovsky is paid by the Bills organization to be part of Josh Allen’s PR team and you can’t convince me otherwise pic.twitter.com/uRtx4z53Wr

— JacksonMuse (@Jackson_muse) January 19, 2026

“Buffalo’s there to recover the fumble, and they don’t. Their big guy doesn’t get on the ball, and they don’t,” Orlovsky said.

Orlovsky, who also criticized the game officials in other posts, did offer a rebuttal, but it didn’t appear to do much good in the public sphere.

With all due respect

This is 1 clip out of I think 6 or 7 that I displayed. I show his INT and say can’t miss this, I show the fumble and say he can’t do this—I show the fumble and say guys double teamed ——the point I made is how many self inflicted wounds Buffalo had.—Josh…

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 19, 2026

Meanwhile, Orlovsky appeared on ESPN’s Get Up on Monday to discuss the weekend that was in the NFL Playoffs. He ended up stepping in it all over again with his commentary about the Patriots’ win over the Houston Texans, saying that if anyone other than C.J. Stroud had been playing quarterback for Houston, they would have won.

“If you’re Houston, you win that game with 31 other quarterbacks.” 👀

—@danorlovsky7 on the Texans’ loss to the Patriots pic.twitter.com/QsjfpYwstx

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) January 19, 2026

He went on to say it’s “unfortunate” that Houston’s defense will not be playing in the AFC Championship Game, and “eventually the Super Bowl,” after Patriots QB Drake Maye threw three touchdowns against them.

As you might imagine, this didn’t sit well with Patriots fans, and they let him have it on social media.

The pushback and criticism got so intense that Orlovsky offered up a mea culpa, writing, “This app will break ya man.”

This app will break ya man.

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 19, 2026

While he might have hoped that would have stemmed the tide a bit, it appeared to do the opposite, with critics taking him to task for painting himself as a victim.

Adding insult to injury, Orlovsky appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday. McAfee has had some fun with Orlovsky over his quarterback affinities in the past, and the show’s studio offered him no quarter over this latest round of controversies.

“Everyone thinks that when Lamar loses, I say, ‘Lamar stinks.’ And when Josh loses, I make excuses for Josh, which is not factually accurate,” Orlovsky told McAfee. “It’s literally not true. It’s just made up. It’s 100 percent made up. … It’s 100 percent made up that I’m hypercritical of Lamar.”

You were taking it on the shins @danorlovsky7 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/UQoxV5Wqm7

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 20, 2026

However, McAfee and his crew kept giving Orlovsky the business, pushing back on his rebuttals that he’s not biased and doesn’t favor certain quarterbacks.

“You’re very active on twitter except when the guys you bandwagon for are playing bad”

“Were you kicked out of your X account, we didn’t see anything every time Josh committed a turnover?”

Pat McAfee and crew calling out Dan Orlovsky’s bias towards Josh Allen on ESPN just now. pic.twitter.com/fE6P5mj0pB

— Kip Smithers (@Chughes612) January 20, 2026

While there, Orlovsky also explained why the Chicago Bears don’t seem to appreciate him very much either.

What’d you do to Chicago @danorlovsky7 😂😂#PMSLive https://t.co/Oe4VFfQNuR pic.twitter.com/wOZotrBQxD

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 20, 2026

All in all, a pretty brutal stretch for the former NFL quarterback.

Sports are inherently tribal and emotional. And if your chosen profession is to discuss the particulars of teams and players across an entire league, each with their own intensely loyal fanbases, you are putting yourself in a position to receive criticism and pushback, especially if you espouse opinions that don’t jive with what that fanbase believes.

Is Dan Orlovsky biased? Perhaps. Could he believe that he’s unbiased but unaware of the small ways that those biases bleed out into the way he talks about certain players? Also possible. Sometimes, the answers to these questions are less important than the perception that exists.

The perception is that Orlovsky favors certain players and teams over others. He denies it, but it would be good for him to step back and reflect on why this perception exists. To his credit, he offers apologies and mea culpas when called for, so we take him at his word that he’d do that if he felt it necessary.

As another NFL season comes to a close and we move into the offseason, it could be a time for the ESPN analyst to reflect on whether he needs to reconsider how he discusses certain players, or stand his ground and keep reminding people they’re mistaken.

Also, it never hurts to put the phone down and walk away from social media whenever you can.