The Daily Briefing Monday, March 14, 2022

MINNESOTA

QB KIRK COUSINS is extended for a year, giving him two years now left on his deal.  Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The 2022 season will be Kirk Cousins’ fifth as the Vikings’ quarterback. He’s got a new contract that could keep him around for a sixth season, too.

For the second time in three years, the Vikings agreed to a new deal with Cousins to lower the quarterback’s salary cap figure while giving him a raise. The Vikings and Cousins’ agent Mike McCartney announced the deal is a one-year extension, which puts the quarterback under contract with the Vikings through the 2023 season.

“Kirk was one of the first players I called when I joined the Vikings [in January], and it was immediately clear how much he cares about this organization and about winning,” general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said in a statement. “High-level quarterback play is a prerequisite to building a championship team, and we are confident Kirk will continue along that path.”

The move, which came some 70 hours before the start of free agency Wednesday, resolves what might have been the Vikings’ biggest question in the first season of Adofo-Mensah and new coach Kevin O’Connell’s leadership.

According to a league source, Cousins will get a $25 million signing bonus and a total of $35 million in new money, all of which is guaranteed. He again has a no-trade clause — as he did when he signed his first deal with the Vikings in 2018 — and will make $40 million in cash this year.

The new deal helped the Vikings achieve some of their priorities.

The team needed to clear more than $15 million to get under the salary cap by Wednesday. The Vikings added two void years to the deal to spread out the impact of Cousins’ signing bonus, dropping his 2022 salary cap number by almost $14 million, from $45.166 million to $31.466 million.

Cousins should count for $36.25 million against the Vikings’ salary cap in 2023, when he turns 35 years old. If he is not on the roster in 2024, he will carry a $12.5 million cap charge, when a pair of $6.25 million signing bonus prorations from Cousins’ two void years hit the cap. With the salary cap expected to spike in coming years thanks to the league’s new TV deals, though, the dead money represents a relatively minuscule charge, especially if the Vikings find a young quarterback on a rookie deal to succeed Cousins.

Cousins and McCartney have opted for short-term deals in Minnesota, prioritizing guaranteed money over long-term security since the quarterback became the first player in league history to play on the franchise tag for two consecutive years in Washington. By the time Cousins finishes his third contract with the Vikings, he will have made $228.89 million in the nine seasons since his first franchise tag, with $185 million of it coming from the Vikings in seven seasons.

O’Connell was Cousins’ quarterback coach during his final year with the Commanders in 2017, and a warm relationship with the new coach seemed to bode well for the quarterback, after a year where he played in his third career Pro Bowl while throwing 33 touchdown passes against seven interceptions.

“I am thrilled for the opportunity to play for Kevin and could not be more excited about the direction of our team,” Cousins said in a statement. “As soon as we return to TCO Performance Center next month, we will begin working toward our collective goal of bringing a championship to Vikings fans.”

Adofo-Mensah said at the NFL scouting combine that “everything is in play” with the Vikings’ roster, stirring up intrigue over the possibility the team could look to deal Cousins while pursuing either a younger quarterback or another veteran. But the general manager had dinner with McCartney at the combine, and the Vikings worked through the weekend on a new deal that would douse any sense of uncertainty about Cousins’ immediate future in Minnesota.

Now, the Vikings will bet on their new coach’s ability to optimize the offense around Cousins after O’Connell won a Super Bowl as the Rams offensive coordinator with quarterback Matthew Stafford, who had an 0-3 playoff record before this season.

For Cousins to mimic Stafford’s path, the Vikings will need to rejuvenate a defense that has ranked near the bottom of the league the past two seasons, while solving long-running issues on the offensive line. Teams can begin negotiating with free agents at 11 a.m. Monday.

O’Connell, though, has seemed to suggest the Vikings have enough talent on their current roster to win with some minor adjustments. The team’s new regime will test that theory over the next two years by banking on Cousins — owner of a 59-59-2 regular-season record as a starter — to thrive in a scheme and culture built for his benefit.

Chad Graff of The Athletic with more:

Last month, Vikings co-owners Mark and Zygi Wilf stood shoulder to shoulder near the 50-yard line of the team’s practice facility moments after introducing Kevin O’Connell as the franchise’s new head coach. It was a proud day for the organization, they said, and they beamed watching O’Connell mingle alongside new general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

It also seemed like a golden time for them to usher in a new era of Vikings football with a rebuild and a reset of the previous regime that experienced some success but was never able to achieve its ultimate goal. By the end, it was clear change was needed. The offensive line was a mess, the defense was worse and the quarterback occupied a massive portion of the salary cap. The team hadn’t been over .500 for two full years.

But the owners were adamant they didn’t need to rebuild. This is a team they expected to be in the playoffs. With new leadership and better coaching, they insisted, this Vikings team should compete for a spot in the postseason year after year.

On Sunday night, one day before NFL teams are allowed to discuss potential contracts with free agents, the Wilfs and the Vikings doubled down on that idea, agreeing to a one-year contract extension with Kirk Cousins that ties him to the franchise through the 2023 season. The new contract, which comes with two void years at the end, according to a source, lowers Cousins’ cap hit $14 million to $31.4 million in 2022 but comes with a $35 million, fully guaranteed extension and a no-trade clause. The agreement comes after multiple teams expressed interest in trading for Cousins, according to sources, but instead leaves the Vikings committed to the 33-year-old quarterback in a clear sign that they will be doing everything in their power to snap a two-year skid without a playoff berth.

“Kirk was one of the first players I called when I joined the Vikings, and it was immediately clear how much he cares about this organization and about winning,” Adofo-Mensah said in a statement following his first major move at the helm. “High-level quarterback play is a prerequisite to building a championship team, and we are confident Kirk will continue along that path.”

For the Vikings, the move provides salary cap flexibility at a time when it’s badly needed. Additional moves to lower their cap number are expected in the coming days, which will allow them to sign a few players, including likely a guard and cornerback, when free agency officially opens on Wednesday.

The deal also gives Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell a quarterback they feel they can win with at a time when ownership has made its desires clear. O’Connell is convinced, according to sources, that he can help Cousins achieve the best season of his career with an innovative scheme while connecting with him off the field.

For Cousins, it’s another shrewd move for a quarterback who has financially leveraged his situation throughout his career better than arguably any other in the NFL. He held all the cards in the latest round of negotiations with the Vikings but didn’t want to leave a team where he had Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen to throw to, all while benefitting from a Dalvin Cook-led running attack. He enjoyed his brief time in Washington when O’Connell was his quarterbacks coach and feels he’ll succeed in the new scheme. That, in Cousins’ dream scenario, will lead to big numbers and another chance at a big contract. Plus, Cousins was able to add a no-trade clause via this extension, so he’ll again have plenty of leverage after this season.

But what does it get in the big picture?

The Vikings are undergoing a changing of the guard — except at the most important position. They’ve welcomed a new regime focused on innovation and collaboration, but they return a quarterback with a 33-29-1 record with the Vikings and a 59-59-2 career mark. So how much change can they expect?

If you ask ownership, quite a bit. The Vikings played in a record-setting number of close games last season. With better coaching, they feel, more of those close losses will flip to wins, and the Vikings will be back in the playoffs.

But it’s also fair to acknowledge that the roster needs some massive improvements. Despite the star names, it’s a roster with very little depth, virtually no cornerbacks, a depleted defensive line and major concerns on the interior of the offensive line.

Perhaps this is the start of a flurry of transactions for the Vikings, who need to soon make a decision on Danielle Hunter and could restructure the contracts of Adam Thielen and Eric Kendricks.

But a decision on Cousins had to come first, and now the Vikings’ plan is clear. It doesn’t matter that the last two years have ended in disappointment. The Vikings are spurning a rebuild in hopes that the core of this roster, led by Cousins, will be able to get over the hump with a new coach and general manager.

DALLAS

With WR AMARI COOPER heading to Cleveland, the Cowboys lock on with WR MICHAEL GALLUP.  Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Cowboys receiver Michael Gallup will be staying in Dallas for years to come.

Gallup, who was slated to hit free agency on Wednesday, has instead agreed to a new contract with the Cowboys. According to multiple reports, it’s a five-year contract worth $62.5 million.

The Cowboys considered retaining Gallup a high priority, and after shedding salary cap space by agreeing to trade Amari Cooper to the Browns, the Cowboys had both the cap space and the need to keep Gallup around.

Last year Gallup missed half the season but still managed 35 catches for 445 yards.

Gallup is the No. 33 player on PFT’s list of the Top 100 free agents.

TAMPA BAY

He’s back!  Jenna Laine of ESPN.com:

Tom Brady’s retirement lasted 40 days.

Brady said Sunday he is returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his 23rd season in the NFL. The seven-time Super Bowl champion announced his decision on Twitter and Instagram, saying he has “unfinished business.”

“These past two months I’ve realized my place is still on the field and not in the stands,” Brady wrote. “That time will come. But it’s not now. I love my teammates, and I love my supportive family. They make it all possible. I’m coming back for my 23rd season in Tampa.”

The announcement comes the same day Brady posted a video on his Instagram stories in which soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo asked him, “You’re finished right?” Brady’s answer was not audible, but the expression on his face suggested he really hadn’t closed the door on retirement.

In a statement Sunday evening, Bucs general manager Jason Licht said the announcement was something the team had been preparing for in recent days.

“[Head coach Bruce Arians] and I have had plenty of conversations with Tom recently that led us to believe there was a realistic chance he would want to come back,” Licht said. “Tom is the greatest quarterback of all time who is still playing at an elite level. With this decision now made, we will continue to move forward with our offseason plans to reload this roster for another championship run.”

Arians at the NFL combine two weeks ago said he didn’t think Brady was returning, adding that he felt the quarterback was done because of the reasons he retired — mainly family. His children are getting older, and his wife, Gisele Bundchen, has said she has struggled with seeing him take so many hits. But Brady is able to return because of the full support of his family.

In a statement Sunday, Arians said the team is “ecstatic” that Brady decided to come back for another season.

“Tom Brady loves to play football as much as anyone I have ever been around,” Arians said. “As Tom said, his place right now is on the football field.”

The news also comes one day after a collector shelled out $518,000 for the ball used on Brady’s last career touchdown pass to wide receiver Mike Evans, who excitedly tweeted, “LFG!” moments after Brady’s announcement.

Brady’s return comes on the eve of NFL free agency in which the Bucs will face tough odds to return all of their free agents. Tight end Rob Gronkowski, center Ryan Jensen, right guard Alex Cappa, cornerback Carlton Davis, running back Leonard Fournette, safety Jordan Whitehead, defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh and outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul are set to become unrestricted free agents with the Bucs currently $11 million over the salary cap.

Gronkowski has not yet committed to a return for the 2022 season, and he said at the end of the season that his status would not be tied to Brady.

The Buccaneers saw their odds to win the Super Bowl at Caesars Sportsbook drop from 20-1 entering Sunday to 10-1 following the news of Brady’s return. Their odds to win the NFC went from 10-1 down to 5-1, just behind the Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers.

Brady now also has the third-lowest odds to win the 2022 NFL MVP behind Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers as he dropped from 45-1 to 9-1 following the announcement. Odds involving Brady and the Bucs were down for more than an hour while Caesars Sportsbook worked through the news, along with booking NCAA tournament lines.

Peter King was on the case overnight:

Always thought there was a chance,” Arians told me in a text Sunday night. “Slim, but had fingers crossed the last few weeks.”

Meanwhile, Brady took advantage of that leisure time to figure out his life. He and his family went to Costa Rica, to New York, and to England (most recently) to watch Manchester United. On Saturday, Man U star Cristiano Ronaldo scored three goals in a 3-2 win over Tottenham, and afterward, cameras caught him asking Brady, “All good? You’re finished, right?” Brady made a face like, Ummmm, well, not really. And a day later, Brady made it official.

So what happened? I think once Brady found out his family backed him doing what he truly wanted to do—play or not play—he figured he had clearance to make the decision he wanted to make. That decision, his good friend and podcast partner Jim Gray told me Sunday night, was rooted in how he feels about football, and how he feels, period.

“I don’t think Tom wanted to be sitting there, out of the game and watching football in September and thinking, ‘I’m as good as those guys. I can still do this. I still love it,’ “ Gray said.

Logically, the world wondered what his wife, Gisele Bundchen, thought of her husband continuing to play. Apparently, she felt pretty good. “Here we go again! Let’s go Bucs!” she said on social media.

Go back to the end of the season. Brady led the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes, the Bucs went 13-4, and, against the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams in the playoffs, Brady led a furious comeback from 24 points down to tie the game with 42 seconds left. Tampa Bay lost 30-27 on a last-second field goal.

“It takes a whole lot to turn off that love of the game,” Gray said Sunday night. “He would not play if he didn’t think he could win the Super Bowl.”

There was a subplot in the Brady return Sunday. It revolved around Brady and free-agent Bucs center Ryan Jensen.

Jensen’s agent, Mike McCartney, had been engaged in talks to try to get Jensen, 30, re-signed before the legal tampering began today at noon ET. But it was a slog. McCartney wanted $13 million per year for Jensen, minimum, to stay in Tampa, and the cap-strapped Bucs weren’t going there. But Sunday afternoon, Brady reached out to Jensen. What he said exactly, I don’t know. But it was something like, I’m coming back and I need you and we gotta get your deal done. Maybe Brady said he pushed the Bucs to be sure they got a deal done with Jensen.

Brady doesn’t have a lot of must-haves, or guys he feels close to and really wants to have at his side. Tight end Ron Gronkowski is one, a clear number one. Jensen, on the Bucs, is two. Particularly with the uncertainty at guard in Tampa with the retirement of Pro Bowler Ali Marpet, getting his center back was a must for Brady.

So Brady calling Jensen, and Brady coming back, did two things: It motivated Jensen to forego the market, where McCartney thought he might be able to get a $15-million-a-year average. And it motivated the Bucs—clearly after Brady telling them he wanted Jensen back—to up the offer to the veteran center to get the deal done Sunday night, before McCartney could begin playing one offer against another today.

The happy result for player and team: Jensen signed for three years and $39 million (in Florida, with the plus of no state tax). He didn’t want to move, and now gets to stay with Brady and the Bucs. And Tampa ensures the return of both tackles and a very good center who Brady valued greatly. Win-win.

Regarding Brady’s other priorities: Gronkowski’s free, and his friends think he’ll return if Brady asks. Wide receiver Chris Godwin, a Brady favorite, is rehabbing a torn ACL while on the franchise tag. I’d expect the Brady return to influence Godwin’s decision to sign the tag or do a longer deal. He loves Brady.

The collateral effects of Brady returning are many.

• The NFL schedule just got an infusion of prime-time and doubleheader-window games. Howard Katz’s schedule team has been working on the schedule daily since mid-January, and working on the premise that the Tampa Bay quarterback was going to be someone other than Brady. Without Brady, Tampa Bay might have been in prime time maybe three times. With Brady, Tampa will max out its prime-time appearances. (The max is six prime-time games scheduled to start the year, with the prospect of a team being flexed into a seventh.)

• The matchups. Look at the made-for-TV games Brady just made happen (assuming he stays healthy). The Super Bowl champ Rams at Brady and Tampa. The fifth Brady-Aaron Rodgers meeting, the fourth Brady-Patrick Mahomes meeting, the first Brady-Joe Burrow meeting. Brady, one more time at the Steelers. Brady, one more time at the beloved team of his youth, the Niners. And Brady, for 19th time, at Buffalo. (He’s 16-2 at the Bills.) What an incredible group of games.

• Happiest people, outside of Tampa, might be in Munich. The Bucs, with maybe Kyle Trask playing quarterback, might have been 4-5 by the time they played the first-ever NFL game in Germany in mid-November. But now, with Brady the likely starter, that game will be a mega-event in Europe.

Late Sunday night, a prominent agent texted me gee-whizzing about the night and the week. “This is fantasy football in 3D!” he texted. “This week defined and redefined what the NFL is today. And the fans love it.”

Big events in the NFL have a natural megaphone with the cacophonous media covering it. What Brady did fit right in to the 24/7/365 world the league has created. With opening day six months away, appetites are whetted. Brady’s too.

HOUSTON

A Texas grand jury did not indict QB DESHAUN WATSON.  Mike Florio ofProFootballTalk.com on what happened:

The grand jury considering the nine criminal complaints against Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson ultimately decided not to charge him in any case. According to Jenny Vrentas and Kevin Draper of the New York Times, the grand jury ultimately heard testimony from only one of the alleged victims.

Per the Times, “several” of the women were present and ready to testify. A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that five of the women were there.

According to PFT’s source, the prosecutor presented evidence regarding all nine claims to the grand jury. The grand jury ultimately wanted to hear directly from one of them.

Two of the cases presented a higher potential of an indictment. None of the nine resulted in the grand jury charging Watson.

Watson’s camp had been quietly optimistic that the allegations against, even if accepted as true, did not amount to crimes. The grand jury apparently agreed.

As we’ve previously explained, indictments often hinge on the zeal applied by the prosecutor. If the prosecutor wants to indict a suspect, it’s not hard to do — since the defendant has no representation in the process. If the prosecutor doesn’t want to indict a suspect, it’s also not hard to do. The prosecutor controls what is and isn’t presented, and a skilled prosecutor can nudge a grand jury in a desired direction.

So why wouldn’t the prosecutor in this case not want an indictment of Watson? Possibly, she truly believed no crimes had been committed. It’s also possible that she believed she would not be able to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, even if she believed that Watson had crossed the line.

There’s a fundamental difference between factual guilt and legal guilt. Plenty of people are factually guilty, but the court system can’t prove that they are legally guilty. As to Watson, the criminal process has ended. On the civil side, 22 cases remain. In one or more of those cases, a jury eventually could conclude that he violated the legal rights of the women who are suing him, under the much lower legal standard of preponderance of the evidence.

Peter King on the calculating going on with interested NFL teams:

Talking over the weekend with one team that has some interest in trading for the sidelined Houston quarterback (“Kicking the tires on it,” one club official said), it was clear that the sordid part of Watson’s story is not over, despite a Texas grand jury deciding Friday not to hand down an indictment of sexual misconduct against Watson. This team was just coming to grips with the fact that, though Watson will not be charged criminally, 22 women have maintained in civil cases that Watson engaged in sexual misconduct during massage-therapy appointments while he was the Texans quarterback. Watson has vehemently denied the charges and is set to testify Tuesday and answer questions about the civil suits. It’s logical no team will make an offer until they hear what he says.

Even after the presumed NFL suspension for part of the 2022 season is served by Watson, the teams interested in dealing for him—the Panthers, Eagles, Browns, Seahawks and Saints, reportedly—have to consider how much to factor in public reaction in their communities. Enterprising reporters wherever he signs will try to find and interview the women who have accused Watson. The sordid details in stories several massage therapists told to Sports Illustrated last year will emerge again.

Internally, interested teams will ask before making a trade: Is this the franchise cornerstone we want to hold up to our fans and sponsors? One club official told me Friday that Watson, coming out of Clemson in 2017, was one of the cleanest top prospects off the field this team has seen in recent years. That, also, will weigh into the decision by teams.

It’s an important question that every team considering a trade will have to debate internally. And then there are these three other important questions:

• Most importantly, which teams will Watson waive his no-trade clause? Would he say okay to a deal to the Eagles, in a very tough town, if they were interested? When Michael Vick signed there after his incarceration for dog-fighting, fans picketed and some never let it go. Or would fans be so in love with Watson’s talent that they’d let the past go? How about the Panthers, surely interested, with the thin ice coach Matt Rhule appears to be on? The no-trade part of the story is a legitimate question.

• What’s a fair price in trade? Watson is owed $35 million guaranteed this year, and you should not expect the Texans—after paying him $10.5 million to sit last fall—to contribute a dime to that $35 million. The acquiring team will be in line to pay all of that, plus per-year non-guaranteed compensation of $37 million, $32 million and $32 million from 2023-25. I think the price will start with at least three first-round picks, and probably some add-ons.

• Is he worth it? If a team can handle the off-field part, morally and practically, it’s getting a 26-year-old franchise quarterback who, in 2020, led the NFL with career-bests in passing yards (4,823), TD-to-interception differential (plus-26) and rating (112.4) on a bad Houston team.

Watson has the upside of a top-five NFL quarterback for the next decade. Some team is going to bet it can withstand the negatives of the next 12 to 18 months and look toward solving a major need with a player it thinks it will love in 2025, 2027, 2029.

JACKSONVILLE

Peter King:

There’s a reason I wrote last week that Aidan Hutchinson exited the NFL Scouting Combine as the favorite to be the top pick in the draft. Two, actually. One was the fact that I believe Jacksonville favors an edge player with the first overall pick, at least right now, and Hutchinson (30.5 tackles for loss last fall) is the cleanest of those prospects. Two was the belief in left tackle Cam Robinson, which Jacksonville reinforced last week by placing the franchise tag on Robinson. That was a mild surprise to those projecting who might get tagged, guaranteeing a player most consider a middle-of-the-road tackle $16.62 million next year. I see why. Robinson has steadily improved over the past three years as the Jags’ left tackle, and last year, per Pro Football Focus, he allowed one sack of Trevor Lawrence in 573 pass-blocking snaps. As of today, I think Jacksonville (last 33 games: 50 sacks) is better served adding a pass-rush threat to the Josh Allen/Dawuane Smoot tandem than a tackle.

NEW ENGLAND

S DEVIN McCOURTY will be back with the Patriots.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Signs pointed toward safety Devin McCourty remaining with the Patriots this offseason and the deal is reportedly done.

According to multiple reports, McCourty will be back in New England on a one-year, $9 million deal. It will be McCourty’s 13th season with the team that took him with the 27th overall pick of the 2010 NFL Draft.

McCourty, who was No. 95 on our list of the top 100 free agents this offseason, played every game last season for the sixth straight year and he finished the regular season with 60 tackles and three interceptions. His 31 career interceptions are third in Patriots history.

The Patriots are also expected to bring back special teams ace Matthew Slater and backup quarterback Brian Hoyer, although there’s no word on those deals being done at this point.

THIS AND THAT

BROADCAST NEWS

Richard Dietsch of The Athletic on the move of Joe Buck AND Troy Aikman to ESPN and what it means for FOX Sports.

You are forgiven if you don’t remember 2002 as one of the craziest times in NFL broadcasting history. In May of that year, in a move that was considered controversial at the time, Fox Sports announced that its lead broadcast team on the NFL would be a three-person booth.

The new trio for Fox?

Joe Buck, Cris Collinsworth and Troy Aikman.

What set up that move was a fellow named John Madden asking in February 2002 to be released from the final year of his Fox contract. Fox granted the request, freeing up Madden to sign with ABC’s Monday Night Football. Madden’s new partner on ABC is a broadcaster who is familiar to you. His name is Al Michaels.

Madden’s partner of 21 seasons at CBS and Fox, Pat Summerall, had announced he would retire after Super Bowl XXXVI, which put some of this action in motion. Madden eventually signed a four-year, $20 million deal with ABC/ESPN, which was crazy money for a sports broadcaster at the time. (Summerall did come back for a short run for Fox in 2002 as well, but the internet only has so much space so we’ll end the history lesson here.)

Fast forward nearly 20 years and we are in the midst of an even more bonkers broadcasting stretch. In a move that has now had reverberations at multiple networks, Aikman has moved from Fox to ESPN to become the network’s new lead analyst on “Monday Night Football.” As The Athletic wrote a couple of weeks ago, industry sources confirmed that Aikman’s ESPN deal will be $92.5 million over five years, or $18.5 million annually. Then came another earthquake: On Friday The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand — credit him for terrific work breaking many of these transactions — first reported that Buck was expected to leave Fox Sports for ESPN to become the voice of “Monday Night Football” alongside his longtime Fox partner Aikman. That news was quickly confirmed on Instagram by Buck’s wife and soon-to-be ESPN colleague, Michelle Beisner-Buck.

What else? Starting next season, Amazon will air 15 “Thursday Night Football” games a year (though the 2032 season) via Prime Video to Amazon customers with a Prime membership. (The games will also be televised in the home markets of the playing teams.) Peter King of NBC Sports reported the company has settled on ESPN college analyst Kirk Herbstreit as its lead NFL analyst.

Who will sit next to Herbstreit? Well, Michaels (yes, our man from 2002) remains a free agent as of this writing, but he will have a broadcasting home very soon, and likely as soon as this week. Keep one potential scenario in mind with Michaels and Amazon: The streaming giant can bring Michaels in to do less than a full season of games. Michaels reduced his travel over the last couple of years for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, and Amazon could get the sizzle of Michaels as its lead announcer and then add a second, quality NFL game-caller such as Ian Eagle to fill out the rest of the schedule. (Amazon has a wheelbarrow of money, so they can get creative.) Given that ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro went Oceans Eleven on Fox’s NFL booth, Fox boss Eric Shanks has some decisions to make about whether this is the moment to let a younger generation of broadcasters plant their flag on his biggest properties.

NASCAR would blush at the silly season for NFL broadcasters at the moment. With the zaniness still going, here are eight items/thoughts/educated guesses on what’s next and what to make of it after talking to people in the sports broadcasting business.

1. Fox Sports will have a new play-by-play voice for the World Series for the first time in decades. (Buck has called 22 consecutive World Series for Fox and 24 in total for Fox, including the 1996 and 1998 World Series). Multiple sources connected to Fox said the expectation was that Joe Davis would be bumped up to Fox’s No. 1 spot on its MLB package and become the next Fall Classic game-caller. In many ways, Davis has been prepared for this. Fox hired him in 2014 to call college football, college basketball and MLB. The next year, the Dodgers hired the then 27-year-old Davis to call 50 road television games on SportsNet LA with analysts Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra. (Here’s a 2015 piece I wrote on Davis as the Dodgers looked to navigate Vin Scully’s final year.) He’s since become the television voice of the Dodgers, as well as filling for Buck during the 2019 American League Championship Series. Davis is a terrific baseball game-caller and at a perfect age to lead Fox for many years to come. You may have heard speculation about Dan Shulman, one of the great baseball play-by-play people and a current ESPN announcer, but sources said Shulman won’t be leaving his current roles.

2. Having interviewed Buck many times over the years, I’ve learned his interests extend beyond play by play. (He’s guest-hosted “Jeopardy!” and did an interview show once for HBO.) Part of his ESPN deal is going to afford him the opportunity to be an executive producer in content areas of interest. Buck wants to be part of ESPN+ programming. So, as an example, Buck could executive produce a documentary or docu-series on an era of baseball or an athlete who interests him. (It’s very possible Buck might front one of those series, but I’m told he’ll be doing things where his role is strictly behind-the-scenes and on the production side.) I would not expect Buck to be part of any ESPN car wash (where people come to Bristol, Ct. and appear on a thousand shows), but one-offs on SportsCenter or other high-profile spots are definitely possible. Industry sources say Buck’s total compensation package at ESPN will land around the $75 million range over five years.

3. If you purchased a Malibu, Suburban or Tahoe from Pine Belt Chevrolet in Eatontown, N.J. in the early 2000s, I’m here to give you an update on sales associate Kevin Burkhardt: He’d be terrific replacing Buck as Fox’s No. 1 NFL play-by-play broadcaster. It’s been a tremendous success story for Burkhardt, and credit former Fox executive producer John Entz as well, who first became impressed with Burkhardt as the Mets field reporter on SportsNet New York (SNY) and hired him to call NFL games in 2013. At the time, Burkhardt’s only experience calling NFL games was via Compass Media as the lead voice of the Cowboys for people in markets not covered by the Cowboys Radio Network. He has since developed into a first-rate NFL broadcaster, with both Charles Davis and Greg Olsen as partners.

While Buck and Aikman leaving Fox are obviously going to be jarring for viewers and Fox Sports staffers, the network has a great opportunity to set itself up for the next decade at the play-by-play position. Burkhardt is 48 years old. Davis is 34. Adam Amin is 35. Promotions for Davis, Burkhardt and Amin  — and the likelihood of contract extensions for each — would be an easy and logical step to make each feel valued, especially in a universe where those talents are seeing the crazy dollar figures being given out by ESPN. Shanks and executive producer Brad Zager have a real opportunity here if they believe Amin, Burkhardt and Davis are the next generation of iconic game-callers. Begin your future now, and live with the fact that ESPN made a mega-splash with Aikman and Buck. Then walk into the office (or Zoom in) of Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and tell him that you just saved him $25 million or so this year in talent charges and you’d like a bonus for your efforts.

4. Something interesting I heard this week from staffers at multiple networks — people who garner major industry respect — was not to give too much weight to Drew Brees’ NFL playoff broadcasting debut. Brees and Mike Tirico called the Bengals’ 26-19 victory over the Raiders, and it was objectively a very tough game for Brees. The sentiment was this: Smart networks work with on-air talent to improve, and what NFL executives and producers liked about Brees still exists: He possesses a wealth of football knowledge, he’s well-liked (particularly by NFL executives); he was willing to do college games to get game reps; and he’s a Hall of Fame name recognizable to audiences. The tightrope for big games is often unforgiving, but we’re still talking about a very young person in broadcasting: Brees is 43. Someone smart in the business told me to look at it the same way as Brees’s professional career. He was inconsistent his first couple of years and then it all came together. Brees hesitated to impose himself as a broadcaster but had no issues eventually doing that as a player. Again, he’s by no means a sure bet, but there are people in positions of authority who believe in him long-term.

5. Fox Sports wanted to keep Buck. There’s no spin on that. But to the company’s credit, they allowed Buck to get out of his contract so he could come to an agreement in principle with ESPN. Both sides have always spoken highly of one another and the separation here was not contentious. Obviously, it’s a great signing for ESPN to land Buck and Aikman. But we are also not far removed from Fox Sports landing significant ESPN on-air people including Amin, Tom Rinaldi and Jonathan Vilma. I’m still stunned ESPN did not find a way to keep Amin.

6. Aikman is now the highest-paid on-air employee at ESPN. (The Athletic reported in July 2021 that Stephen A. Smith makes $12 million in total compensation.) Buck also slots in as one of ESPN’s highest-paid on-air employees. Why does this matter? Because ESPN’s deal for Aikman obliterated the existing salary scale for ESPN on-air talent. ESPN has a pair of significant staffers coming up for renewal in the middle of the summer: Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski. Both of them are significant for ESPN because the company’s editorial strategy in many ways relies on news-breakers such as Schefter, Wojnarowski and Jeff Passan to break significant news — and then that news becomes the funnel for ESPN multimedia content, including its debate shows, SportsCenter, digital and social. Schefter’s value is particularly significant given the importance of the NFL to ESPN’s product, especially with the company now in the Super Bowl rotation. As I previously wrote, top ESPN management such as Norby Williamson (who leads ESPN’s talent office in addition to other assignments) have asked on-air talent over the last two years to take salary reductions. You can read about that from Kenny Mayne here. It will be interesting to see how ESPN’s talent office navigates future contracts for talent with leverage – meaning players such as Apple and Amazon and gambling companies being interested in ESPN people — and how much of this stuff continues to become public.

7. Fox Sports historically swings big on talent hires. Madden is the patron saint of this, but there are plenty of others over the decades — Jeff Gordon, Greg Norman, Pete Rose, Alex Rodriguez. Once upon a time, Fox swung for the fences by making Gus Johnson the face of its global soccer coverage. While I’d still handicap Burkhardt and Greg Olsen as the favorites for replacing Buck and Aikman on Fox’s No 1 team, Fox Sports executives are talking internally about whether there is a big swing out there. Obviously, Michaels qualifies as that. I’ll repeat what I wrote here on March 1: I’d still consider Olsen the leading contender to be Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst when the season begins next September. As one well-connected Fox Sports staffer told me: Top management looked at their NFL analyst roster last year as Aikman and Olsen in the top tier, and then others in tiers below. That’s not a guarantee Olsen gets moved up, but it’s a pretty easy decision in many ways. Do the highest levels of Fox Sports management think Olsen is a long-term No. 1? If the answer is yes, he takes Aikman’s spot.

8. Here are some numbers of interest — 14.2 million and 1.6 million. What do they represent? Monday Night Football averaged 14.18 million viewers over 19 regular-season games this year, the best regular-season viewership for ESPN since 2010. “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli” averaged 1.6 million over nine alternative telecasts. (Peyton and Eli’s regular-season high came with 1.96 million viewers for Giants at Chiefs in Week 8.) As people have written many times, game announcers rarely impact viewership, but they have a massive impact on how you process the game. Will ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro’s signing of Buck and Aikman impact these viewership numbers at all? Can the Mannings expand on last year’s numbers? The schedule and competitiveness of the games will dictate most of these answers, but by the end of the season, you’ll want to take notice of what the final numbers are after Pitaro broke the bank for the Fox team.

There’s a clear motivational aspect for both Aikman and Buck on moving to ESPN. Both came up in an era when Monday Night Football was king. Neither was ever going to be credited with maintaining the dominance of Fox’s 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday window. But if they improve the viewership or cachet of Monday Night Football? That’s a nice legacy mark.

Thoughts from Peter King:

Buck left the top football/baseball job at Fox for the single job of “Monday Night Football.” Two things interest me:

• Buck, who has done 24 World Series, just disappeared from baseball. It’s barely a mention in the story of him going to ESPN to do Monday games with former Fox partner Troy Aikman. Maybe his love of baseball waned, or maybe the hopscotching between baseball playoffs/World Series and football Thursday/Sunday games for five weeks just got very old. Who could blame Buck, particularly with 4-year-old twins taking up more of his life, for saying, Something’s gotta go, and it’s baseball. The sad part of it, though, is he’s great at baseball. I’ll miss him being the voice of the Fall Classic, and big baseball playoff games prior to it.

• The whole Monday night thing—with Buck and Aikman on ESPN doing a regular telecast, and Peyton and Eli Manning doing an entertaining alternative one on another ESPN channel—seems like a vanity deal for ESPN. As Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported, ESPN will now pay about $50 million a year to employ those four men. Imagine paying two sets of football commentators to record contracts to compete against each other every Monday. Time will tell if it’s a stroke of a) genius or b) insanity to have Buck and Aikman try to boost Monday Night Football ratings while having the Manning brothers nibble away at their audience every week. As one industry person said to me Saturday: “You think Peyton and Troy are going to shake hands with each other and say, ‘Good luck?’ They’re super-competitive. All four of those guys will be analyzing the ratings every week, trying to beat the other guys.”

Postscript: FOX has two of the next three Super Bowls, and America will likely get to know Kevin Burkhardt a lot better in the next three seasons. He’s likely to take Buck’s seat. What a jump in status for Greg Olsen—who was playing tight end for the Seahawks 15 months ago—if he gets FOX’s top analyst seat and works two Super Bowls in his first four years on TV.