The NFL is back! While fans will be focused on the field of play, I’ll be paying just as much attention to the broadcast booths. There are essentially seven major television and streaming outlets carrying the NFL this season. They bring with them an assorted collection of play-by-play announcers, color analysts and sideline reporters.
Some have been doing it for decades. Others are just beginning to make their marks. Regardless, the 2026 NFL season promises to be interesting not only on the field, but also on the air.
Prime Video
Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video features the inimitable Al Michaels on play-by-play, Kirk Herbstreit providing analysis and Kaylee Hartung working the sidelines.
This crew is growing on me. I am certainly not breaking any news by saying that Al Michaels is an absolute legend. At age 81, he remains one of the most recognizable and accomplished voices in sports broadcasting history.
While I still categorize Herbstreit as a college football guy, he has transitioned well to the pro game and definitely does his homework. Ironically, Herbstreit’s college background actually gives him an advantage over his peers. He has seen just about every NFL player develop through college. That gives him a perspective that NFL-bred analysts simply do not have.
Hartung is an experienced and competent reporter. Her style is that of a quiet assassin. She brings a pleasant style, but still asks meaningful and direct questions of coaches. Even if she does not always get similarly deep responses.
Netflix
The NFL’s other major streaming partner is Netflix. For the 2026 season, the network has assembled one of the most interesting broadcast teams in the business. Play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle is not a rising star anymore. The star has firmly risen.
I am really excited to see Luke Kuechly grow as a color analyst. The former Carolina Panthers star, Boston College legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer brings something very unique to the booth. He combines the intellectual with the instinctual. Kuechly understands the game at a high IQ level, but he was also a down-and-dirty, hard-nosed linebacker. His analysis is intelligent yet uncomplicated.
The Netflix crew also features reporter MJ Acosta-Ruiz, who brings energy and enthusiasm to her reporting in a fresh and entertaining manner. This might just be the most fun broadcast team to watch this season.
NFL Network
While now bound to ESPN, NFL Network will still air select games this season with a pair of top-tier broadcast teams.
One crew features Dave Pasch on play-by-play with Kurt Warner and Jason Kelce as analysts. Pasch is truly overlooked as one of the best play-by-play announcers in the business. He understands and implements the three P’s of play-by-play: personality, preparation and pacing. Pasch is truly adept at recognizing the drama and tempo of a football game and communicating that to the viewer.
Warner and Kelce are broadcasting’s version of The Odd Couple. The dapper and staid Warner is the prototypical NFL quarterback turned broadcaster. He brings knowledge, a sense of calm and serious analysis.
Meanwhile, Kelce is the veritable love child of Oscar Madison and Grizzly Adams. He is a wild card. You never quite know how he is going to dress or what he is going to say. With Kelce, there is no neat script. The broadcast booth is an absolute adventure.
The other NFL Network team features play-by-play announcer Bob Wischusen, analyst Louis Riddick and superstar sideline reporters Molly McGrath and Peter Schrager. Wischusen is a carbon copy of Pasch — just a highly watchable and listenable play-by-play announcer who lets the action on the field unfold and dictate his vocals.
Simply put, Riddick is one of the top five football analysts in the business, whether he is working in the studio or high above the gridiron. The guy brings real talk in a classy, stylish and polished manner.
It will also be fascinating to watch McGrath, in my opinion the best college football sideline reporter on television, transition to the pro game and to see Schrager continue building his résumé as an all-around talent.
CBS Sports
Change is the watchword at CBS as the 2026 NFL season begins. With Tony Romo dealing with the aftermath of his OWI arrest in Milwaukee on July 23, J.J. Watt steps into the primary analyst role alongside iconic play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz. The consistently great Tracy Wolfson will work the sidelines.
We all know about Nantz. His decades of excellence put him in the same class as Al Michaels in the annals of sports broadcasting. He remains one of the most revered voices in sports. Wolfson is darn near equally experienced and solid in the sideline role. She has developed into one of the most prepared and accomplished reporters, working across multiple sports.
Watt will definitely be the CBS broadcaster most under the microscope as this season unfolds. He has hit the ground running almost as well as Romo did during his rookie CBS season in 2017. Watt is insightful, straightforward and thorough in his knowledge of the game.
More importantly, he has demonstrated an ability to communicate with viewers in a down-to-earth manner. We knew Watt had a great personality from his playing days. What we didn’t know was how effectively he would package that personality for television. He has done an excellent job.
Nantz helped Romo quite a bit back in 2017 and will do the same for Watt. In fact, there probably is not a better play-by-play announcer for a relative newcomer to work alongside. Over the years, Nantz has mentored the likes of Romo, Phil Simms and Dan Fouts, all of whom blossomed into terrific color commentators.
NBC Sports
We saw NBC’s No. 1 NFL broadcast team in action during the NFL season kickoff game featuring the Patriots at the Seahawks. Mike Tirico has firmly ensconced himself in the upper echelon of contemporary football play-by-play announcers. He is very straightforward, with no unnecessary wizardry or forced emotion. The guy simply calls a great game.
There may be no more in-sync broadcast team in football than Tirico and Cris Collinsworth. Their pacing and knowledge of when to speak and when to remain silent are exceptional. Collinsworth’s preparation is legendary. He effectively uses the telestrator to show key aspects of the game and is unafraid to bring biting opinions into his analysis.
I’ve been a huge Melissa Stark fan for a long time, going back to her days as a young reporter working on Monday Night Football. She has also done memorable work for NFL Network as a reporter and host. Stark’s ability to share interesting tidbits of information during a game is terrific. She brings depth and context to all of her reports.
ESPN / ABC
The only broadcast team that truly rivals NBC in terms of television experience is the star-studded duo at ABC/ESPN. When you talk about the greatest football broadcast partnerships of all time, you think about Pat Summerall and John Madden on CBS and FOX, Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith on ABC’s Monday Night Football, and Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen on NBC. It might be time to add Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to that group.
I’m not sure any play-by-play announcer and color commentator bring more majesty to the table. Let’s start with the fact that both of these dudes look like celebrities with time-defying, square-jawed auras. They both possess an authoritative mien similar to Cosell, Gifford and Summerall. Buck is always willing to throw in a little humor, while Aikman is a straight-up, no-nonsense analyst. That’s a nice combination.
When I see Joe Buck and Troy Aikman calling a football game, the word that comes to mind is time. Buck’s voice has seemingly been the soundtrack to every significant football and baseball moment for the last 30 years. He has earned his legendary status through decades of performance.
Aikman has made the transition from Dallas Cowboys quarterback to frontline NFL analyst look remarkably natural. Like Collinsworth, he is known for his voluminous game preparation. He makes it look easy, but it is anything but. With Buck and Aikman, you are simply talking about two men who have been at the height of their respective professions for a very long time.
The celebrity aspect of today’s Monday Night Football is only increased by the presence of sideline reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge. This duo has very different styles, but they are similar in their ability to bring pertinent information and storylines to the broadcast.
FOX Sports
Speaking of celebrities, there is no doubt that the most famous personality broadcasting NFL games in 2026 is FOX’s No. 1 analyst, Tom Brady. Just as he did as a player, Brady has not rested on his laurels as a household name. The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback has absolutely worked at his craft.
Brady has learned to slow down and not try to analyze a play before it finishes. He has truly benefited from working alongside Kevin Burkhardt, who is building his own résumé as one of the most versatile and consistently solid play-by-play announcers on television. I see Burkhardt as a contemporary version of Bob Costas.
While Salters and Rutledge are a tough sideline reporter team to beat, FOX’s Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi are right there with them. Both Andrews and Rinaldi have been doing this for a while, and I think what separates them from other sideline reporters is their work outside of sports.
Rinaldi became famous at ESPN for human-interest stories that had a connection to sports but were about much more than X’s and O’s. Andrews remains the best co-host in the long history of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Both bring a non-sports sensibility to the football field.
It is indeed an eclectic group of broadcast teams for the NFL in 2026, but across the board, there is a shared characteristic. All of the networks have play-by-play announcers who never put themselves above the game. They all employ analysts who have worked to become good commentators rather than simply parlaying a few Pro Bowls into a television gig.
In addition, all of the teams include actual reporters working the sidelines, gathering information and telling stories rather than simply looking good in a chic hat and glove combination during a December game with playoff implications. All of those factors make the 2026 NFL season worth watching.
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