If ESPN decision-makers have their way, viewers will be seeing more of Josh Pate on their airwaves.

The network wants to expand Pate’s role going forward, sources told Front Office Sports.  

Sources told FOS that ESPN president of content Burke Magnus has felt, in the past, that the network has under-covered college football on its studio programming relative to the ratings the sport garners, which trail only the NFL in U.S. sports. The sport has had several hot-button storylines of late, including Lane Kiffin’s protracted departure from Ole Miss and Notre Dame getting left out of the 12-team Playoff. 

“We introduced Josh into the fold for this football season, on a short-term deal, and he’s been fantastic—so have Taylor Lewan, Will Compton, and a slew of other college football voices,” ESPN SVP Mike Foss told FOS. “As the year is coming to a close, and as it’s been an incredible year for football in general, it’s a good opportunity to look to the future. As we look at everything Josh has done, we certainly want to find a world where he’s a part of it.”

Pate has appeared regularly on Get Up and SportsCenter, as well as a few times on First Take during this football season. He appears frequently on The Pat McAfee Show, which is licensed to ESPN.

Pate also hosts a YouTube show—his channel has more than 500,000 subscribers—with components of the show licensed to Yahoo Sports and On3. 

Industry sources believe Pate is ultimately primed to make millions of dollars per year as his exposure has exploded. 

Regarding the matter of more college football talk on ESPN, Foss said there has already been a push.

“Going into this fall we made a concerted effort to follow college football in a really meaningful way,” Foss said. “It’s something McAfee has done masterfully on his show as well. We just wanted to widen the tent. We saw going into this season that audiences were going to be astronomical. Collectively we made a push to make sure all our shows were equipped to have those conversations in a substantial way.” 

As FOS noted, ratings were up across the board for ESPN’s studio programming in 2025, including Get Up, First Take, The Pat McAfee Show, Pardon the Interruption, and Scott Van Pelt’s midnight SportsCenter.  

With Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down as Steelers coach, there’s growing speculation he will jump into a lucrative career in sports media. 

As previously reported by Front Office Sports, Tomlin has long been the No. 1 draft pick of billion-dollar NFL media partners looking for the next great football analyst. 

Of course, Tomlin could be eyeing one of the open NFL head coaching jobs with the Giants, Falcons, etc. But if he does want media after 19 years in Pittsburgh, there will be a seismic reaction, says one TV source.

“Tomlin probably will have five media offers. Every network will offer him a job,” predicts the source. “He could be the one guy every network makes an offer to. You have a successful coach, number one, a good communicator, number two.”

That is if Tomlin doesn’t have a destination in mind already. ProFootballTalk wrote the 53-year-old may have a media offer in hand. “Every network will want him,” writes PFT. 

Tomlin was pulling down roughly $16 million a year as Steelers coach. The question now is whether he’d want to be a game analyst like Tom Brady of Fox, Troy Aikman of ESPN, and Tony Romo of CBS. That’s where the big money lies. Brady pockets an eye-popping $37.5 million a year, while Aikman and Romo earn $18 million annually from ESPN and CBS.

Or Tomlin could look for a soft landing in sports media with a once-a-week studio analyst gig. In that case, the bidding would likely start at $5 million to $8 million, according to longtime football writer Gary Myers. That’s what his Steelers predecessor Bill Cowher did after leaving coaching. He’s been a mainstay on the frequently changing cast of The NFL Today since 2007. 

Here are some possible landing spots if Tomlin wants media:

• CBS: A seat just opened up next to Cowher on The NFL Today with the departure of Matt Ryan to the Falcons. After moving J.J. Watt to game analyst, the granddaddy of all NFL studio shows is down two cast members. But does new CBS Sports chief David Berson want to have two former Steelers coaches on the same show?
  
• Fox: Tomlin could slide perfectly into former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson’s seat on Fox NFL Sunday. He’s got the Super Bowl pedigree and the experience to chop it up with Terry Bradshaw & Co. But Fox has been giving more on-air reps to Rob Gronkowski this season. Does it want to upset the show’s chemistry?
  
• ESPN: As a rule, big bosses Jimmy Pitaro and Burke Magnus look into every potential star who comes on the market. There have been growing rumors Rex Ryan has the itch to return to coaching. Tomlin would be the perfect replacement for the former Jets coach on Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday’s Get Up with Mike Greenberg. Did we mention Scott Van Pelt’s Monday Night Countdown doesn’t have a coach in its cast? Tomlin could be another Nick Saban–like coup for the worldwide leader.
  
• Amazon Prime Video: The real wild card here. Tomlin would add some needed coaching gravitas to Prime’s freewheeling pregame and postgame shows. Prime boss Jay Marine told FOS he wants a Super Bowl. Who better than a Super Bowl–winning coach to call the first streamer-only Big Game?
  
• Netflix: Don’t forget about them. Netflix just hired Elle Duncan away from ESPN for a wide-ranging sports hosting role. Both Fox and ESPN have shut the door on streamers borrowing their on-air talent. So look for Netflix to hire more full-time sports media talents.
  
• NBC: The network also likes to tinker with the cast of Football Night in America. Tomlin could be a breakout new star on the pregame show hosted by Maria Taylor.

Over the decades, many NFL coaches have left for TV before returning to the sidelines. Tomlin could follow in the path of Bruce Arians and Sean Payton, who took a TV break before returning to the league. 

After retiring from the Cardinals, Arians called games for CBS for one season before un-retiring and leading Brady’s Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship. Payton served as a Fox studio analyst in 2022 before returning to the NFL. His 14–3 Broncos just ended the Chiefs’ nine-year reign atop the AFC West.

The Broncos had to trade for Payton, who was still under contract with the Saints when he returned to coaching. When he quit on Tuesday, Tomlin had two years left on his Steelers deal, including a team option for 2027.

The truth shall set you free. Tom Brady’s willingness to tell some hard truths about quarterback play has propelled his TV rise this year.

Tom Terrific’s rookie season as Fox Sports’s No. 1 NFL broadcaster was rocky at best. Sure, he called the most-watched NFL game in TV history: Fox’s telecast of the Eagles’ win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, which averaged 127.7 million viewers. But Brady was robotic and awkward. He seemed completely averse to criticizing current quarterbacks, not to mention coaches and refs.

That’s a common mistake by rookie sportscasters. They can’t give up their membership in the Shield, and come off hesitant and awkward in the booth. So they pull their punches. 

The former sixth-round draft pick by the Patriots is nothing if not a quick learner. Brady’s sophomore season on the air with Fox’s No. 1 NFL crew of Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews, and Tom Rinaldi has been a different story.

On Sunday, Brady was justifiably praised for his precise, focused call of the 49ers’ 23–19 wild-card win. Yes, he was still positive. But he was more willing to criticize the play of reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts and the defending champion Eagles. Who better to do that than a seven-time Super Bowl winner who holds virtually every NFL passing record?

During the second half, for example, Brady questioned Hurts’s decision to throw to third-string Jahan Dotson instead of his two star receivers: A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. The pass fell incomplete. Philadelphia squandered yet another offensive opportunity.

“I don’t know what [Hurts] is possibly seeing here,” said Brady. “If I have two Pro Bowl–caliber wide receivers to one side … I’m going to give them a shot at getting the ball. That’s what you’re paying them for.”

With the game on the line, I thought Brady’s best moment came when he ripped an “antsy” Hurts for running away from “perfect” pocket protection. By rolling to his right, Hurts effectively limited his throwing options to half the field. 

On his eponymous Ringer podcast, Bill Simmons said it was “riveting” TV to watch Brady dissect Hurts’s performance.

“Brady was so disappointed. We’ve heard that, too, with [CBS’s Tony] Romo sometimes when a quarterback is really bad. It’s almost like the Mafia. You don’t want to go against somebody who’s a made man. The quarterbacks are the made men. So you can only go so far. But I thought Brady was disgusted by Hurts,” Simmons said.

Added former ESPN anchor Stan Verrett on X/Twitter: “Brady is the best tv analyst now, already. He’s taken over the top spot.”

Coming out of college at Michigan, Brady didn’t have the résumé of other blue-chip prospects. But he was always the best between the ears. It’s fascinating when he brings us into his world and shows some of the simple mechanical tricks that make the difference between winning and losing.

During Sunday’s telecast from a windy Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, social media loved Brady’s impromptu demonstration of how to throw a football through the wind. It all depends on the QB’s grip, he said. If the point of the ball is up, the pass will sail high. Grip it another way, and the pass bores through the wind. 

This is why Fox is paying Brady an eye-popping $37.5 million a year. The longtime Pats QB’s old backup Brian Hoyer noted on Twitter: “This was the stuff I got to learn about every single day for the first 4 years of my career. No detail was too small, awesome he gets to share his knowledge with viewers each week.”

Brady has put it all together this season. As legendary Fox producer Richie Zyontz previously told Ryan Glasspiegel: “Tom has figured out the ins and outs of television that he was struggling with last year, just being new at it. It’s a different language. He sees so much and TV forces you to speak about things in a very condensed period of time.” 

Brady doesn’t have the ebullience of Romo or the TV experience of NBC’s Cris Collinsworth and ESPN’s Troy Aikman. What he does have is a unique skill set as the greatest quarterback and winner in NFL history. If Brady keeps progressing he could challenge Aikman for the title of TV’s best NFL game analyst.