Two of the most ubiquitous figures on ESPN, Pat McAfee and Jason Kelce, will have high-profile new roles on its NFL coverage this season.
ESPN announced Wednesday new roles for both McAfee and Kelce, with the former joining its “Monday Night Countdown” NFL pregame show and the latter adding game analyst duties on NFL Network. McAfee — one of two newcomers to “Countdown” along with Jason McCourty — will continue in his current roles on ESPN’s “College Gameday” and his own daily talk show.
The additional role expands McAfee’s growing presence on ESPN, which at this point may exceed even that of Stephen A. Smith. He would appear to be the first ESPN analyst to hold simultaneous full-time roles on both “College Gameday” and “Monday Night Countdown,” which along with “Sunday NFL Countdown” are the highest-profile ESPN-produced studio shows. The “Countdown” role would seemingly guarantee he will have some presence on ESPN’s Super Bowl broadcast in February. It also guarantees him a presence on NFL Network — now owned by ESPN — which will simulcast “Countdown” (and “NFL Live”) throughout the season.
As one might expect, McAfee will take his daily talk show on the road from the site of “Monday Night Football” each week.
McAfee had already been a small part of ESPN’s NFL coverage via his show’s annual “NFL Draft Spectacular,” which predates his time with ESPN but this year was integrated into the viewership figure the company reported for its draft coverage.
McAfee (and McCourty) join a returning “Countdown” cast that consists of Scott Van Pelt, Marcus Spears, and Kelce, who will balance the studio role with a new position in the NFL Network broadcast booth. Kelce will join Dave Pasch and Kurt Warner in what figures to be the lead booth for NFL Network, calling four of its seven games this season — Colts-Commanders and Eagles-Jaguars in London, Steelers-Saints in Paris, and one of the two Week 16 doubleheader games.
NFL Network will use a second broadcast team for its three other games, as Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick will work Jaguars-Texans in London, Bengals-Falcons in Madrid and another of the Week 16 games. Molly McGrath will be the sideline reporter on all six NFL Network dates, with Peter Schrager working one of the Week 16 games.
NFL Network will continue to provide its own distinct NFL studio programming throughout the season with much of the same personnel it has used in past years, from Jamie Erdahl, Kyle Brandt and Manti Te’o on “Good Morning Football” to Rich Eisen, Steve Mariucci, Gerald McCoy and Warner on “NFL GameDay Morning.” Additional NFL Network talent returning this season include Colleen Wolfe, Daniel Jeremiah, Jane Slater, Mike Yam, Sara Walsh — who was laid off from ESPN in a particularly cold manner nine years ago — Mike Garafolo, Steve Wyche, Stacey Dales, Steve Smith, Chris Rose, and Maurice Jones-Drew.
In a podcast appearance with Jimmy Traina last year, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said the company wanted to preserve the “very different brand” and “very different voice” of NFL Network. Magnus: “We don’t want to blend [ESPN and NFL Network] to such a degree that their identities start to meld.”
It should be noted that while NFL Network was sold to ESPN, the NFL retains ownership of NFL Media. On Wednesday, the league-owned outlet announced deals with Andrew Siciliano, Yam and Wolfe, who will host various shows for NFL+, the league’s YouTube channel, and the free NFL Channel. Siciliano is returning to NFL Media after being laid off two years ago.
NFL Media will also continue to produce the weekly “NFL RedZone” whiparound show with host Scott Hanson, as previously announced last year.
