Tom Brady will call a lot of Cowboys games

Tom Brady made his (lukewarm) debut as a Fox broadcaster calling the Dallas Cowboys against the Cleveland Browns.

This weekend, he’ll try to brush off the criticism when he calls the Cowboys’ home opener against the New Orleans Saints.

Noticing a pattern?

It’s only two games but it makes a lot of sense that Fox would want to pair its $375-million superstar commentator with the NFL franchise that attracts more eyeballs than any other, especially when they’re playing well. In theory, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys are set for a solid season, and the longer they remain in playoff contention, the more likely that Fox will want to put its best (or at least, priciest) foot forward broadcasting their games.

Before the season started, we tried to predict every game Brady would call during the 2024 season . Now that we have a little more hard data to guide us, this seems like the perfect time to look ahead and attempt to figure out how often Brady and the Boys will be paired up this year.

First things first, we need to eliminate all of the weeks when the Cowboys are playing on a network or streamer other than Fox. That takes Week 4 (Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football ), Week 5 (NBC’s Sunday Night Football ), Week 7 (Bye), Week 8 (NBC’s Sunday Night Football), Week 10 (CBS) , Week 11 (ESPN’s Monday Night Football ), Week 14 (ABC/ESPN’s Monday Night Football) , and Week 16 (NBC’s Sunday Night Football).

There’s also Week 18’s game against the Washington Commanders to consider. The TV assignments for the final week of the NFL season usually aren’t announced until right beforehand to account for which games have the biggest implications. So for now, that game is TBD.

That leaves us with nine regular-season Cowboys games on Fox to consider although you may see that number change with NBC and ESPN’s ability to flex games later in the season.

Week 1

Tom called Cowboys vs. Browns. Check.

Week 2

Tom is calling Cowboys vs. Saints. Check.

Week 3

Brady and Kevin Burkhardt will almost certainly be on the call for the Cowboys’ third game of the season, a 4:25 p.m. ET tilt against the Baltimore Ravens. It’s the most notable game on their schedule that day and offers a prime timeslot Fox wants to take advantage of. Brady gets to break down Dak Prescott vs. Lamar Jackson and chances are he’ll be pretty up to speed on everything Dallas by this point, production meetings or not .

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 99%

Week 6

You might think this is the ideal time to give Brady a break but in reality, there’s no real option. The Cowboys visit the incredibly trendy Detroit Lions which could be a playoff preview. The game is at 4:25 p.m. ET, and will be shown to most of the country. Any other option that day wouldn’t make sense.

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 99%

Week 9

The Cowboys travel to Georgia to take on the Atlanta Falcons at 1:00 p.m. ET and this is likely the first weekend we’ll see Fox shuffle Brady and Burkhardt elsewhere. The Lions visit the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, which could be an ideal landing spot. Fox has a New England Patriots game that weekend (vs. Tennessee) but they’re more likely to send Brady to the Patriots-49ers game in Week 4. The Los Angeles Rams play the Seattle Seahawks at 4:25 p.m. ET so while that is another option, it’s likely we’ll see Fox send Brady to Lambeau with Dallas vs. Atlanta a very unlikely possibility.

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 10%

Week 12

Dallas travels to D.C. to take on the Washington Commanders in the 1:00 p.m. ET timeslot, so in what seems like a mismatch and more of a regional broadcast, this is likely an opportunity to send Brady elsewhere. The most obvious choice is to send him back to Lambeau for the 49ers vs. the Packers at 4:25 p.m. ET. The only other Fox game in that timeslot is the Arizona Cardinals vs. Seahawks, which likely won’t have the juice.

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 10%

Week 13

They’re not paying Tom Brady $375 million to NOT call the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day game against the New York Giants. It’s not even a question.

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 100%

Week 15

Dallas heads to Charlotte to play the lowly Carolina Panthers at 1:00 p.m. ET and we can be fairly certain Fox won’t waste their A-team on this game. In the afternoon window, you’ve got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Los Angeles Chargers, which gives us the chance to see Brady call one of his former teams. You also have the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Philadelphia Eagles. Both of them seem like viable options, depending on how those four teams are doing at the time. I’d think Eagles vs. Steelers is a solid favorite as of now. Either way we know for sure is that Brady will not be in North Carolina that weekend.

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 0%

Week 17

Fox’s final Cowboys game (for now) has them heading to Philadelphia for an NFC East showdown with the Eagles at 4:25 p.m. ET. This one feels like a no-brainer for the A-booth. Many of the other game times are still TBD but regardless there’s no other option that really moves the Brady needle.

Brady/Cowboys Odds : 90%

From here on out, it’s a bit of a crapshoot. As we noted, the Week 18 TV assignments won’t be known until right before. Dallas hosts the Commanders that week and we really have no idea what the implications might be for that one. We’ll presume the odds are low that it won’t be Brady-worthy but, again, who knows?

Beyond that, Fox has one Wild Card playoff game, one Divisional Round game, the NFC Championship, and Super Bowl LIX. Far be it from us to be the ones to predict Jerry Jones’s team will finally be able to make that run back to The Big Game, but if they do, we could potentially get four more Brady calls for the Cowboys.

Setting that possibility aside for the moment, including Week 1 and 2, we will set our official prediction at six total Cowboys games for Brady this NFL season. That doesn’t end up being that many, despite how it might seem right now. That said, if the stars align, it could be as many as ten. But again, that requires us to have faith that the Dallas Cowboys will get it done in the playoffs. Do that at your own peril.

In case you’re wondering, one announcing crew calling one team five or six times in a season is nothing special. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms called eight Patriots games in 2012 for CBS. Pat Summerall and John Madden called nine New York Giants games in 1986 and called eleven Dallas Cowboys games in both 1995 and 1996 .

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