Danny Kanell to Join Ryen Russillo's Show on ESPN Radio

Danny Kanell will be Ryen Russillo’s new co-host weekdays from 1-4pm Eastern on ESPN Radio, TBL has learned from multiple sources. Russillo has been at the network since 2006; he was a utility man on the radio airwaves for about four years before his show with Scott Van Pelt in 2009. SVP, of course, departed the show a short while ago to host midnight SportsCenter.

An ESPN spokesman declined to comment.

Kanell joined ESPN in 2010; he spent six seasons as an NFL quarterback, with stops in New York (Giants), Atlanta, and Denver, where he had 24 career starts. He played both football and baseball at Florida State, and dabbled in minor league baseball during time away from the NFL in 2001.

[RELATED: Dan LeBatard Hammers MLB, Goes on Rant About Race and Colin Cowherd]

As far as the rest of the ESPN Radio lineup goes, not much has changed since we covered it about a month ago. Dan Le Batard’s show remains management’s first choice to move into the 10am-1pm slot that was vacated by Colin Cowherd. There have been talks, but it’s still far from official.

If that did happen, it sounds like Bomani Jones, who’s also based in Miami, is the top choice for the late afternoon. Because that’s contingent on Le Batard moving first, there are a lot of details that would need to get ironed out and it’s premature to speculate whether it’ll definitely happen.

[RELATED: If Colin Cowherd Wasn’t Going to Fox, Would ESPN Have Fired Him?]

Delving deeper into what’s basically a trade rumors column at this point, we’ve heard that if Le Batard and Jones both move earlier, management has kicked around the idea of asking Jalen Rose and Dave Jacoby, who have a successful Grantland podcast, to do a show from 9-11pm. Again: This coming to fruition would require a lot of moving parts to fall into place, in addition to the reality that, during basketball season, Jalen’s commentary would be in most demand but least available. Fitting everything together in his busy schedule would be a big challenge.

It bears mentioning that especially these latter two possibilities — Jones to mid-afternoon, and Jalen and Jacoby getting a nightly show — are ideas hatched with the digital space squarely in mind. As we’ve written before, podcasts (and live-streaming) are where the money’s going on a years-long time horizon, and will increasingly drive business decisions at ESPN Radio and beyond.

ESPN Radio would surely like to have its weekday lineup set in stone by football season, so the next few weeks should be interesting to see where all the chips fall.