Last season, shortly after Dan Orlovsky announced his retirement from the NFL, then-Lions coach Jim Caldwell reached out with an offer: Come join Detroit’s staff for the second half of the year, get a feel for the job — the hours, the responsibilities — and see if it might be a fit.



“I think you’re going to be remarkable coach in the future, if that’s what you’d like to do,” Caldwell told him.



Orlovsky respectfully declined.



“I’d just gotten done playing so I needed the break, and my family needed the break,” Orlovksy said. “I told him, ‘I’m so honored you would think of me but I can’t, nor want to say yes.'”



In the months that followed, Orlovsky quickly rose up the media ranks instead, parlaying his popular insights on Twitter (and as a contributor for The Athletic) into his current position as an analyst and color commentator at...