7 burning media questions for the 2026 NFL season

Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The NFL is officially back.

Thursday night, the preseason gets underway with the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. And the nation will be glued to their televisions, tablets, and phones to follow all the games and all the drama from now until Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027.

And along with the new season come several questions about the NFL’s television partners.

In the weeks leading up to the season, there has been an unusual amount of drama and intrigue in the traditionally stable world of NFL broadcasting. There have been layoffs and suspensions affecting some of the top stars in the industry. And there’s also the specter of expiring contracts that could shake things up even more.

Here are seven burning questions ahead of the 2026 NFL season that could reshape the media landscape.

1) Wherefore art thou, Romo?

CBS shocked everyone when they benched Tony Romo after his OWI arrest in Wisconsin and named J.J. Watt as his replacement in the top booth alongside Jim Nantz. Romo is currently on an indefinite leave. But given his hefty contract and the heavy criticism he has endured in recent years, CBS may be exploring its options to make it permanent.

Romo is still owed tens of millions of dollars on his contract that runs until 2030. And if Watt hits it off with Nantz and impresses the way he did when he was alongside Ian Eagle in his rookie season as an announcer, it will only motivate CBS even further to find a way out of his contract that has become an albatross.

Any negotiation or battle over morality clauses and whether or not CBS can actually get out from under the contract could get extremely messy. But given CBS took this extraordinary step, it looks like Romo will be their lead analyst again. A compromise solution could find Tony Romo brought into the studio where CBS needs more personality, and he could find a softer landing than the booth where his lack of prep has been exposed in recent years. But if the two sides can’t work together to find a path forward, Romo’s CBS tenure could come to a shocking end.

2) Will Mike Tomlin live up to the hype?

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has been one of the most sought-after television analysts in the league for years. With him finally deciding to step away from coaching, Tomlin signed with NBC as its lead studio analyst. It’s a perfect marriage in that Tomlin will provide the network with a much-needed central voice to lead their coverage. And it gives Tomlin the opportunity to shine in a place where he won’t be drowned out by several other analysts on set at the same time.

But will Tomlin actually deliver on the promise that everyone in the industry thinks he has as an analyst? Will he be willing to be strong and opinionated, or will he be reserved in the hopes of using this as a gap year before he gets back into coaching and not ruffle any feathers? And for that matter, will he actually be good on television? Some NFL personalities who we thought would translate immediately well haven’t clicked, while others from far off the radar have become television mainstays. Given the spotlight he is in and the role he has, NBC better hope he’s ready to go from day one. And we’ll find out at Thursday’s Hall of Fame Game if he is ready for primetime.

3) Which Tom Brady will we get?

Nobody has had a weirder offseason than NFL on Fox lead analyst Tom Brady, who seems to be suffering from several mid-life crises at once. It seems like every day Brady has a new business venture he’s investing in (this week’s example is card collecting ) or he’s continuing his bizarre WWE-inspired feud with Logan Paul . What makes it so strange is that Brady’s feud with Paul looks  like a WWE angle… that hasn’t been on WWE television at all. If you don’t have inside knowledge, you may be wondering why the GOAT has been acting like such a jerk.

And all this is happening while Brady is still trying to juggle being a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders and Fox’s $375 million lead analyst. The good news is that Brady was vastly improved in his second year in the booth. He was much more comfortable, authoritative, and entertaining. Football fans just have to hope that continues and his performance isn’t weighed down by… everything else going on.

4) Who at ESPN will step up?

ESPN is entering the 2026 season without two of its biggest stars in Ryan Clark and Cam Newton . Clark was a foundational piece, being seen on almost every ESPN show from Get Up to SportsCenter with SVP and everywhere in between. Newton was more exclusive to First Take, but ESPN’s flagship morning show leaned on him to fill the void left by Shannon Sharpe.

Now without either present, there is definitely a void that can be filled by a newer personality looking to step up and get some shine. Jason McCourty is already slotted in for Clark’s Monday Night Countdown spot. And Gerald McCoy has moved over from NFL Network to get reps this week. Now that ESPN and NFL Network are on the same team, there are plenty of candidates to level up the worldwide leader’s depth chart. So who will it be?

5) What is in store for ESPN’s Super Bowl year?

The other big storyline this year at ESPN this year is the network’s first airing of a Super Bowl this coming February. Technically, it’s a simulcast with ABC, but who’s really keeping score, right? The one thing we know for certain is that ESPN will cover the Super Bowl like no sporting event has ever been done before. We’ve already been promised beachfront shows in Los Angeles, Disney activations, and a year-long marketing campaign surrounding the game. Let’s be honest, the hype train is going to be so out of control that you’ll be looking for any way to jump off.

But the most intriguing question might be what comes next. Contracts of the top network stars are usually tied to when that network airs their Super Bowl in the rotation. And it’s already known that Troy Aikman and Joe Buck’s contracts a...

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →