By admin 
When you sit down on your couch to watch a football game, a significant part of that experience quickly becomes what you’re listening to-and, in turn, who you’re listening to.
Throughout the 2026 NFL season, games will be broadcast weekly through four of the league’s traditional television partners-CBS, ESPN/ABC, NBC and Fox-as well as on Amazon Prime Video, the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football.
With that comes five No. 1 teams of play-by-play announcers and color commentators who are tasked with walking-err, talking-you through the 60 minutes of game action and everything in between.
In the end, every broadcast brings something different-and there’s ultimately a reason each duo is No. 1 on their respective networks. That said, here’s a ranked look at the NFL’s five primary booths for the 2026 season.
5. Jim Nantz and J.J. Watt (CBS)
We have a new pairing in CBS’s No. 1 booth to start 2026, as J.J. Watt has been tasked with taking over for Tony Romo as the network’s lead analyst after an OWI arrest led to him being placed on indefinite leave.
Watt already proved to be good at this, spending the 2025 season alongside Ian Eagle and Evan Washburn on CBS’s No. 2 team and showing a unique blend of humor and the ability to critique players he once shared the field with.
Now, Watt’s been placed next to the gold standard in Jim Nantz-who has called games for CBS since 1988, including four Super Bowls with Phil Simms and three more with Romo-and didn’t miss a beat to begin 2026.
JUSTIN JEFFERSON ON A FREE PLAY
GBvsMIN on CBS/Paramount+
Stream on @NFLPluspic.twitter.com/ZKnmvwBDtR
– NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2026
The two worked off each other quite well during their Week 1 call of Vikings vs. Packers, but we’ll leave them here in the rankings as they continue building chemistry together. It’ll be worth watching how the network handles Romo’s eventual return.
4. Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit (Amazon)
Al Michaels is a legend of the broadcast game; there are no two ways about it. Between his legendary calls of the “Miracle on Ice”, 11 Super Bowls (tied with Pat Summerall for the most) and countless events in between, the now 81-year-old has been a staple of the sports broadcasting world for nearly 50 years. Some may say Michaels has lost a step, but his cutting, authoritative voice remains unmistakable to this day.
As far as his color commentator, Kirk Herbstreit, goes, he’s simply stretched too thin. Tasked with calling Thursday Night Football, appearing on College GameDay and then heading back to the booth for ESPN’s premier college football game alongside Chris Fowler and Holly Rowe, the former Ohio State quarterback has a lot on his plate every weekend-and every so often, it shows.
Kirk Herbstreit: “Look at guys in his own draft class, Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen. Those guys raise the offense, they raise everybody! The coaches, the belief! That’s the one thing you’d love to see more of just from Kyler Murray”
Al Michaels: “He was a year later” pic.twitter.com/keKdacUQi8
– Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 26, 2025
Even so, Michaels and Herbstreit are the ones who bring us the first NFL game of the week every Thursday night, and that on its own is something to be excited about.
3. Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady (Fox)
Hidden behind the leather pants and manufactured fights with Logan Paul is Tom Brady’s innate football mind. He’s the best (and considered the most cerebral) player the sport has ever seen, and as someone who has been hyper-critical of the former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback, even I can admit that Brady is a joy to listen to on Sundays. The best part? Much like during his 23-season tenure as a player, he’s improved year over year.
Read more San Jose Sharks prospects get bad news on injury front as camp begins
Brady does a great job at helping laymen understand the game at a higher level. During Fox’s Week 1 call of Eagles-Commanders, he showed viewers his and Josh McDaniels’s call sheet from the Patriots’ Super Bowl LI win over the Falcons, and explained what each segment meant and why the plays were broken up in a certain way.
A piece of history.@TomBrady really brought in his call sheet from the @Patriots’ iconic Super Bowl LI comeback win over the Falcons. pic.twitter.com/YkJ0Du1G5G
– FOX Sports (@FOXSports) September 13, 2026
In last season’s playoffs, he taught us how to throw the ball differently in the wind. Of course, it helps to have a pro’s pro beside him in Kevin Burkhardt, who’s been with Fox since 2013 and has slowly but surely climbed his way to the top as the network’s No. 1 play-by-play announcer.
2. Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth (NBC)
NBC’s duo of Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth remains one of the best in the business, even with the latter’s signature slide extinct.
The two have been together since the 2022 season, when Michaels left NBC for Amazon, and have quickly developed a chemistry made for prime time. They were the first voices we heard when the 2026 season kicked off in Seattle last Wednesday night, and delivered an excellent call of Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s game-losing interception to Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe.
Mike Tirico: “A TERRIBLE DECISION!”
Cris Collinsworth: “I can’t believe that throw… Wow. I mean, there are certain things you just can’t do or try when you have field goal range and overtime in your grasp. And that was the play… Ouch.” pic.twitter.com/oZuIRuNN2n
– Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 10, 2026
Collinsworth can come off a bit overenthusiastic, hyping up so many players every week. But he’s undoubtedly knowledgeable about the game and is never going to fake it if he has nothing to talk about. Tirico, meanwhile, has the ability to call just about everything-as evidenced by his extensive Olympics coverage this past winter, which came just days after announcing his first Super Bowl.
1. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (ESPN)
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are the longest-tenured broadcast pairing in the NFL, and still the cream of the crop.
The two first teamed up with Collinsworth at Fox in 2002 before becoming a two-man booth in ’05. Now entering their 25th season together, they’ve called six Super Bowls and are set for their first since their move to ESPN this coming February.
According to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, Buck recently signed a new deal with the network that will keep him as the voice of Monday Night Football into the next decade while paying him more than $100 million. Aikman, at least for now, reportedly remains unsigned. His contract expires after the Super Bowl. The former Cowboys quarterback gives great insight on a week-to-week basis, and our former SI colleague Jimmy Traina has talked extensively about how Aikman is the color analyst most willing to criticize the refs during a game.
Given their extensive history, the way they’re able to work off one another is frankly unprecedented. You just know it’s a big game when Buck and Aikman are on the call, and there’s something fitting about ending the football week with them on the television.
MORE NFL FROM SPORTS ILLLUSTRATED
- Baker Plays For First Win While Deshaun Plays For His Career
- Three Bold Predictions for Bills-Lions on ‘Thursday Night Football’ Include a Lot of Touchdowns
- NFL Week 2 Schedule 2026: Ranking All 16 Games From Worst to Best
- The NFL’s Latest Offensive Trend Was Hiding in Plain Sight As It Swept the League in Week 1
- The Biggest Question for Every NFL Game In Week 2
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ranking the Five No. 1 NFL Broadcast Booths for the 2026 Season.
Copyright ABG-SI LLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Read more New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson Launches Family-Run ‘Thirty Third Management’
This story was originally published September 17, 2026 at 3:08 PM.