NFL Broadcast Carousel

Well, I sure didn't see that one coming.  Troy Aikman leaving FOX was a bit of a surprise, but not completely shocking.  Amazon had been openly courting him to do Thursday night games now that they'll be exclusively on Prime Video.  But going to ESPN?  That came out of nowhere!

Of course, ESPN has been looking to upgrade the Monday Night Football booth for years.  Not since Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden have they had anything close to a "good" booth.  In fact, they've typically ranked No. 4 out of the four networks' A broadcast teams.  Too often they made it gimmicky, with experiments that not only didn't work (Jason Witten) but were also stupid (the Booger Mobile).  They struck gold with the Manning Cast alternate broadcast, but that's intended to be exactly what it is.  Which is not a traditional game broadcast.

Their most recent broadcast team of Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese was fine, but unremarkable.  So you knew ESPN was gonna go big now that they'll be getting Super Bowls in the new TV contract (their first is Super Bowl LXI in 2027).  And I'd say getting Aikman, who's been FOX's No. 1 analyst for nearly 20 years, is a big get!

Rumor is they're also trying to get Al Michaels, who's also a free agent and many assume won't be returning to NBC.  There was a lot of speculation that Amazon's Thursday night crew could be Michaels and Aikman.  Now it looks like they might be doing Monday nights instead, which would be an incredible way for Al to cap his career having gone completely full circle.

What intrigues me more, though, is the chain reaction Aikman's move will cause.  Especially since FOX has the Super Bowl next season, and will have a new analyst calling that game.  Which could be either a blessing or a curse, depending on who they get.

There's some speculation that FOX will have an entirely new booth next season, but that seems incredibly unlikely.  Yes, next season is the last year of Joe Buck's contract, but he's also the face of FOX Sports.  He has been ever since FOX Sports launched in the mid-90s.  Plus, he's their baseball guy, so that's (presumably) two different lead play-by-play positions to fill.  Also, I'd assume there's a clause in his contract that gives FOX the right to match any offer he receives from another network.  It would be shocking if that doesn't happen.

So, I'm gonna assume Buck stays, at least through next season.  And the way I see it, there are probably four realistic options to join him in the booth for FOX's No. 1 game, as well as the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl.  All of whom have their pros and cons.

Greg Olsen is probably the most likely in-house candidate.  He got good reviews and FOX loved him on their XFL broadcasts in 2020.  He was so well-regarded, in fact, that Olsen was immediately installed on FOX's No. 2 NFL team last season once he had officially retired.  So, moving him up to the No. 1 team would seem like a natural progression.  But is it too early to do that?  And will he be embraced in the role?

Somebody who likely would be embraced is former Saints coach Sean Payton, who all the networks seem to want in some role.  He's almost certainly gonna end up somewhere, but I think more likely in the studio.  I'm not sure he's done coaching yet, either, so the networks would be weary of putting him on their No. 1 team only to see him bolt for a coaching opportunity.  Might Thursday Night Football be a possibility for him?

Speaking of Bolts, that brings to Philip Rivers.  The networks like bringing in ex-quarterbacks as game analysts.  It makes sense.  Because of the nature of the position, they know the game inside and out, and the successful ones have recognizable names.  Rivers is certainly one of those recognizable names.  But he'd also be a complete novice.  Sure, he could be Tony Romo.  He could also be Jason Witten.  Would FOX really want to take that chance?

You know who my gut tells me it's gonna be, though?  Kurt Warner.  Warner's a Hall of Fame quarterback, obviously, and he's been doing games for NFL Network and on radio for years now.  And he's very good!  Moving to FOX as Aikman's replacement would certainly raise his profile, and FOX would be getting a known commodity who they know can do the job.  Most importantly, he's someone who'd likely work well with Buck, which could be a significant factor in who they end up hiring.

As for Amazon, they won't be getting the Michaels-Aikman booth that they envisioned.  In fact, it's looking more and more likely they won't get either.  (I always thought Al Michales to Amazon was a longshot anyway.  Regardless of the amount of money they offered him, why would the best play-by-play man in football choose to do games that are only available on a streaming platform and also isn't in the Super Bowl rotation?  It just doesn't make sense.)

What they could do, though, is the same thing both FOX and NBC did...have an existing broadcast crew double up that week.  However, unlike the NFL Network games, Amazon's won't be coproduced by one of the broadcast networks, so that may not be an option.  And it's understandable they'd want their own dedicated broadcast crew anyway.  Especially when you consider how much they paid for the Thursday Night Football rights.

My guess is Amazon will hire one of the newer guys as their analyst.  I already said I think it'll be Payton, but it could just as easily be Rivers.  For play-by-play, however, they may end up plucking one of the lesser-known names from CBS or FOX.  Or they could go with Noah Eagle, the son of Ian Eagle, who has drawn positive reviews for his work on the Nickelodeon broadcast of the Wild Card Game the last two years.  (Speaking of that, I could easily see Nate Burleson getting the OK from CBS to do Thursday nights on Amazon and still do The NFL Today on Sunday mornings.)

Aikman, of course, had been doing both Thursday night and Sunday afternoon games on FOX for the past few years.  Moving to Mondays means he obviously won't have to do that anymore.  And ESPN/ABC's getting a Divisional Playoff game as well as joining the Super Bowl rotation starting with the 2023 season, so the one drawback of doing Monday Night Football, no postseason games, is no longer an issue.

Assuming it is a Michaels-Aikman booth, ESPN just went from arguably the worst No. 1 team among the four NFL broadcasters to arguably the best.  FOX's rank will be determined by who they get to replace Aikman, but I just have a feeling it'll be Kurt Warner.  A Buck-Warner booth in 2022, with the former Cardinals quarterback calling his first Super Bowl on TV in his former home stadium.