The Carolina Panthers legend Greg Olsen has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Troy Aikman on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, which would put the Fox analyst back in a No. 1 booth, this time alongside Joe Buck.
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported Friday that Olsen is “widely considered by people inside the sports-media industry to be the favorite” to replace Aikman. ESPN’s list also includes Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Jason Kelce, or Travis Kelce if he retires after this season, per Marchand.
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Olsen, 41, spent two seasons as Fox’s lead analyst with Kevin Burkhardt, calling Super Bowl LVII and winning a Sports Emmy. Tom Brady’s 10-year, $375 million arrival pushed him to the No. 2 team with Joe Davis, where he won another Emmy.
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Andrew Marchand also discussed in another clip how poorly ESPN is handling the Aikman contract situation.
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“So far that’s been managed horribly. I don’t really understand what ESPN is doing fully, because you signed Joe Buck but you got Troy Aikman hanging out there, seemingly not gonna come back after this year, and it’s a huge distraction,” Marchand said on X.
The opening exists because Aikman is unsigned beyond this season. The Cowboys legend is in the final year of a five-year, $90 million deal that ends after ESPN’s first Super Bowl, on Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium. Meanwhile, Joe Buck signed a six-year, $108 million extension in September, a 17.9 percent raise, and ESPN kept it quiet. Aikman’s side later offered to return for the same raise. The network passed.
The relationship broke into public view on Oct. 12, when the two argued in the booth before calling the Bills vs. Rams game in LA. “I’m not the reason you don’t have a contract,” Buck told him, according to The Athletic. Aikman answered, “I just never thought you’d do it to me.” According to Marchand, ESPN has backed Buck, and Aikman has put his chances of calling games next season at 50-50.
ESPN continues big-name signings as Greg Olsen becomes one to join the list
The network has spent the past year loading up on talent even as it cuts elsewhere. ESPN is negotiating an extension with Pat McAfee that The Athletic reported could pay more than $60 million a year, while Stephen A. Smith signed a five-year extension worth a reported $100 million. The $3 billion acquisition of NFL Network, finalized in January, brought Ian Rapoport, Jason Kelce and a deep studio roster under one roof.
The same restructuring cost Ryan Clark, Cam Newton and Tom Pelissero their jobs, and Marchand reported cost-cutting among the reasons ESPN paused on Aikman. That logic cuts both ways. Olsen would not come cheap either, but he has called a Super Bowl, owns three Sports Emmys, and brings no baggage from a partnership gone bad. Buck, per Puck, would welcome him.
Olsen’s ties to ESPN’s leadership are thin: Marchand reported he has met chairman Jimmy Pitaro and content president Burke Magnus once, briefly. That is a relationship problem, not a disqualifier. With Fox yet to open extension talks and Olsen’s deal carrying a clause that lets him leave for a lead job, ESPN has a clean path.
Edited by Aman Kashyap
