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Failed sports TV analysts rarely get second chances. Just ask Jason Witten, who’s been in a veritable TV Witness Protection program since his disastrous single season on ESPN’s Monday Night Football in 2018.
But Drew Brees has overcome doubters before. The former Saints quarterback flopped in his sole season as an NBC Sports analyst in 2021 covering the NFL and Notre Dame. But ESPN raised eyebrows by having Brees appear as a guest analyst on Monday Night Countdown before the Dolphins’ 23–15 win over the Rams on Monday. The Super Bowl champion looked comfortable as he chatted with Scott Van Pelt & Co.
Brees (who has thrown the second-most touchdown passes in NFL history, behind only Tom Brady) wasn’t shy, stating that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has the second-best arm in the league behind Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs. “His arm talent isn’t going anywhere,” said Brees.
I checked with my sources at ESPN about the Super Bowl winner. No, Brees isn’t being hired full-time by ESPN. No, Monday night was not an audition for a bigger role.
But never say never, they cautioned. Some NBC executives saw the 45-year-old Brees as a potential successor to Cris Collinsworth as the network’s lead NFL analyst on Sunday Night Football. After mangling his call of a Bengals vs. Raiders playoff game, it will be a long time before anybody sees Brees as capable of calling another playoff game, much less a Super Bowl.
But the future Pro Football Hall of Famer told Front Office Sports Today back in September he wants another crack at the broadcast booth. Don’t be surprised if he gets it.
“I think I could be the absolute best at it, if given the opportunity. I valued my time at NBC so much, for that year after I played, I spent most of that time in-studio on Sunday Night Football, having to work with some incredible people. … But I didn’t really get the chance to broadcast NFL games,” Brees told my colleague Owen Poindexter in an interview before the start of the 2024 NFL season. “And that’s what I feel like I’m most qualified to do. That’s what I feel like I’m most passionate about. And certainly where my knowledge base lies, right? Telling the story of the game, getting you inside the huddle, getting you inside the quarterback’s head, letting you know how we’re attacking this defense. … That to me is something I’d love to do down the road when the time is right.”
Given the frequent turnover of NFL TV talent, I could see Brees getting another shot. ESPN is always adding and subtracting big names. But I think Brees would be better off joining CBS or Fox as a No. 2 or No. 3 game analyst, and learning his new craft, before reaching for a No. 1 job.
