Jimmy Johnson’s retirement from broadcasting -- and CBS’ shifting of JJ Watt from its studio to a marquee game analyst role -- highlight a generally quiet offseason of transactions on the NFL broadcast front.
The biggest NFL broadcasting news -- ESPN’s non-binding acquisition of NFL Network and other league media properties in exchange for a 10 % equity stake in ESPN –- won’t become official until government regulatory approval, which could take a year to 16 months:
Rounding up the NFL rights-holders and what to expect:
FOX
▪ What’s on (regular season): Sunday road games of NFC teams and some AFC games, plus Packers-Lions on Thanksgiving and a new Week 16 Saturday double-header opposite College Football Playoff games (Packers-Bears, Eagles-Commanders).
▪ What’s new: For the first time since 2002, former Dolphins and UM coach Jimmy Johnson won’t be on Fox’s popular pregame show. Instead of hiring a former coach, Fox will simply have former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski expand his role and take Johnson’s seat alongside Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Michael Strahan… The new Saturday double-header gives Fox 31 NFL windows, the most of any network.
▪ Announcing teams: Kevin Burkhardt-Tom Brady, Joe Davis-Greg Olsen, Kevin Kugler-Daryl Johnston, Kenny Albert-Jonathan Vilma, Adam Amin-Mark Sanchez, Chris Myers-Mark Schlereth.
▪ Comment: Johnson’s candor and homespun humor will be missed, but the man deserves to be able to retire at 82. Though Gronkowski is likable and goofy, he’s not particularly funny and his ‘insight’ is generally superficial…
Brady’s first season was uneven – promising at times, lacking at times. He must be more concise and not feel compelled to fill every moment of air time when Burkhardt isn’t talking. He also needs to self-edit before he speaks; if a point would be obvious to most of the audience, it doesn’t need to be said.
His minority interest in the Raiders presents a clear conflict of interest that at least subconsciously likely curtails his willingness to criticize, at least to an extent. But unlike last year, the NFL will permit him to attend traditional broadcast crew meetings with coaches and players, despite his Raiders affiliation.
CBS
▪ What’s on (regular season): Sunday road games of AFC teams and some NFC teams, plus Kansas City-Dallas late afternoon on Thanksgiving.
▪ What’s new: After previously parting ways with Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason, CBS Sports chairman David Berson made his first big NFL game announcing change this offseason when he moved the personable Watt out the studio to work with Ian Eagle on CBS’ No. 2 team. Charles Davis, who had been Eagle’s partner, will move to the No. 4 team this season and then shift permanently to CBS’ Big 10 package in 2026 when he replaces Gary Danielson, who is retiring after this season.
▪ Announcing teams: Jim Nantz-Tony Romo, Eagle-Watt, Kevin Harlan-Trent Green, Andrew Catalon-Davis-Jason McCourty (who call the first two Dolphins games, at the Colts and home to the Patriots), Spero Dedes-Adam Archuleta, Tom McCarthy-Ross Tucker.
▪ Comment: CBS didn’t replace Watt in its studio, instead opting to stick with a quartet of James Brown, Matt Ryan, Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher. That group is adequate but doesn’t have any dynamic personality that would necessarily draw new eyeballs to the show....
The Watt move is a gamble, but one with high upside. Watt did good work on his one game assignment last season, a Christmas Day Netflix game with Eagle and Burleson.
NBC
▪ What’s on (regular season): Sunday night games every week, plus the Eagles-Cowboys Thursday night opener and Cincinnati-Baltimore on Thanksgiving night.
▪ What’s new: Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, gets exclusivity to the Week 17 Saturday night game that has been carried by NFL Network in past years. Peacock, as usual, also will stream all of NBC’s games.
▪ Announcing team: Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth. (Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge likely will call the Week 17 Peacock game.)
▪ Comment: NBC and the NFL can flex out one or two games between Weeks 5 and 10 and any number of games between Weeks 11 and 17. The Week 4 Packers-Cowboys game, already attractive, becomes even sexier following the Micah Parsons trade.
ESPN
▪ What’s on (regular season): Monday night games (beginning with Minnesota-Chicago in Week 1) and a Week 18 Saturday doubleheader.
▪ What’s new: The NFL said that its three-year old lab experiment of selectively scheduling different, simultaneous ABC and ESPN Monday night games will be ditched next season or 2027, at the latest.
There are three such windows this season, including Sept. 29, when the Dolphins and Jets play at 7 on ESPN and the Bengals and Broncos play at 8 on ABC. The other couple of two-Monday-games: Chargers-Raiders and Tampa Bay-Houston Sept. 15 and Buffalo-Atlanta and Chicago-Washington on Oct. 13.
For the first time since Week 1 several years ago, ESPN will have one Monday night doubleheader, on Oct. 20: Tampa Bay-Detroit at 7, Houston-Seattle at 10 p.m.
▪ Announcing team: Joe Buck, Troy Aikman. Chris Fowler, Louis Riddick and Dan Orlovsky work the ESPN games on the three nights when there are different games on ABC.
▪ Comment: The Buck/Aikman team has aged well. Aikman is one of the rare analysts who has continued to improve over time because of an increasing willingness to criticize....
It’s good to see Randy Moss back after a battle with bile duct cancer. He will be alongside Mike Greenberg, Tedy Bruschi, Rex Ryan and Alex Smith on Sunday Countdown.
AMAZON PRIME
▪ What’s on (regular season): Thursday night games, beginning with Commanders-Packers in Week 2, and Bears-Eagles the day after Thanksgiving and Chiefs-Broncos on Christmas night (a Thursday).
▪ What’s new: Amazon snagged the Christmas night game; there wasn’t one last year.
▪ Announcers: Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit.
▪ Comment: The Amazon schedule has featured too many duds, and this year’s slate has the usual share of games that would traditionally be regional CBS or Fox games on Sundays: Seattle-Arizona in Week 4, Raiders-Broncos in Week 10, Jets-Patriots in Week 11, Atlanta-Tampa Bay in Week 15, Rams-Seahawks in Week 16.
But Amazon has two marquee December games: Dallas-Detroit Dec. 4 and that Christmas Chiefs-Broncos game. NFL NETWORK
▪ What’s on: Eight games. That includes six international games –Minnesota-Pittsburgh Sept. 28 in Ireland; Minnesota-Cleveland Oct. 5 in London; Denver-Jets Oct. 12 in London; Rams-Jacksonville Oct. 19 in London; Atlanta-Indianapolis Nov. 9 in Germany; Dolphins-Commanders Nov. 16 in Spain.
The NFL Network package also includes a Saturday, Dec. 27 doubleheader, with two games to be chosen among Arizona-Cincinnati, Baltimore-Green Bay, Giants-Las Vegas, Houston-Chargers and Seattle-Carolina. (Peacock gets the other game; Ravens-Packers could end up in the prime time slot on Peacock.)
▪What’s new: ESPN will own and operate the network after government approval expected late in 2026.
▪ Announcers: Eisen calls many of the NFL Network games, with CBS also providing some broadcasters in recent years. The network hasn’t announced its talent lineup.
▪ Comment: NFL Network will still carry seven games per season, through 2032, even after the ESPN acquisition is finalized. Those games likely be a mix of Sunday morning international games and December Saturday games.
YOUTUBE
▪ What’s on: A Chargers-Chiefs game from Brazil on Friday night, Sept. 5.
▪ What’s new: This Week 1 Friday game shifts from Peacock to YouTube.
▪ Announcing team: NFL Network’s Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner.
▪ Comment: In December, YouTube acquired the exclusive residential rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package for approximately $2 billion a year, ending DirecTV’s three-decade hold on the prized commodity. But this will be the first NFL game streamed exclusively (and for free) on YouTube.
NETFLIX
What’s on: Dallas-Washington and Detroit-Minnesota on Christmas Day.
What’s new: Unlike its NFL debut last Christmas, Netflix won’t get all the Christmas inventory. Amazon Prime gets a night game….
Also, according to Front Office Sports, ESPN and Fox are hesitant to allow its talent to appear on Netflix games. Last year, ESPN’s Mina Kimes and Laura Rutledge appeared on Netflix Christmas coverage. And after rejecting Netflix’s request to use Burkhardt and Brady, Fox permitted Netflix to use Olsen instead last Christmas.
Announcing teams: To be determined
Comment: Netflix’s NFL presentation was impressive last season, with a picture quality at another level from non-streaming rights-holders. Fox has made.