Media insider names Greg Olsen as future candidate for top NFL job

Next month, Fox will officially relegate award-winning broadcaster Greg Olsen to its No. 2 NFL announcing team as living legend Tom Brady becomes the network's new lead in-game analyst via a 10-year deal reportedly worth $375M that was announced in 2022.

For a mailbag published on Friday, media insider Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated suggested that NBC could eventually reach out to Olsen regarding its "Sunday Night Football" coverage.

"The network booted Al Michaels for Mike Tirico a couple of years ago," Traina wrote about NBC. "Would it go for a full booth revamp and try to swap in Olsen for Cris Collinsworth? Collinsworth, 65, is reportedly under contract with NBC for either one or two more years. I would think a Tirico-Olsen booth has to sound enticing to NBC. Would the network , though, want to remain loyal to Collinsworth, who has been with NBC since 2006? "

Olsen has left no doubt over the past year-and-a-half he wants to continue calling top-tier NFL games either for Fox or for a different company. As Traina point ed out, though, none of the league's media partners has an opening for a No. 1 analyst gig.

Kirk Herbstreit recently told Traina he has three years remaining on his Amazon "Thursday Night Football" contract. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are the current voices of ESPN "Monday Night Football" broadcasts. Tony Romo received a 10-year deal reportedly worth up to $180M from CBS back in 2020.

In February of this year, the Awful Announcing website suggested that CBS could eventually sign Olsen, move him to Romo's current role and then shift Romo to "The NFL Today" studio show. As Brian Steinberg of Variety mentioned, CBS made multiple changes to "The NFL Today" on-air crew following the 2023 season.

Interestingly, media insider Richard Deitsch of The Athletic continues to believe that Brady "won’t complete his 10-year deal with Fox" because the seven-time Super Bowl champion set to become a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders is "someone with greater ambition than broadcasting." Olsen staying with Fox through the start of the 2025 season could be a sign that Deitsch isn't merely spitballing regarding his predictions about Brady's future.