ESPN’s No. 2 NFL booth is getting a makeover, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand.
Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, and Louis Riddick have called games together for three seasons, and that run is expected to end. The Monday Night Football doubleheaders that served as the group’s primary game inventory are officially going away under the new NFL deal, and the seven games ESPN picks up through NFL Network are expected to be mostly international.
Per Marchand, Dave Pasch and Mike Monaco are among the contenders for the play-by-play side of a new booth configuration. On the analyst side, Jason Kelce has emerged as a “dark horse candidate,” while NFL Network’s Kurt Warner is also being considered. Kelce currently works as a studio analyst on Monday Night Countdown, in addition to being the network’s everyman. Warner has been in the conversation for ESPN’s MNF booth before, per Marchand, but nothing ever came of it.
All three members of the outgoing booth will stay at ESPN in significant roles. Fowler stepped into the No. 2 MNF role three seasons ago when Steve Levy was moved out, but the MNF work was always secondary to being the network’s No. 1 college football voice. Riddick was part of ESPN’s No. 1 MNF team before Joe Buck and Troy Aikman arrived and has since become one of the network’s most prominent draft and studio contributors. Orlovsky is a fixture on NFL Live and basically every other football studio show ESPN produces, and has been transparent about his ambition to eventually move into the No. 1 booth when Aikman is done. There is still a chance the group calls some games under the new setup, depending on scheduling, per Marchand, but nothing has been decided.
On the NFL Network transition, Marchand reports ESPN wants to keep Ian Rapoport, whose contract expires at the end of the month. With the draft three weeks away, ESPN is not altering its coverage this year, as Eisen will lead NFL Network’s presentation as he always has, and the initial plan calls for two separate draft shows in the future, with more integration potentially coming down the road. Eisen called NFL Network’s international games alongside Warner, but does not appear to be in line for that role under ESPN’s ownership.
How the Rapoport situation resolves will be one of the more telling early signals of how ESPN plans to integrate NFL Network’s reporting operation into its own, and whoever ends up in the No. 2 booth will answer the same question on the broadcast side.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.