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Noah Eagle explains what won Luke Kuechly the job as Netflix’s No. 1 analyst
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- Noah Eagle explains what won Luke Kuechly the job as Netflix’s No. 1 analyst
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Noah Eagle didn't need much time with Luke Kuechly to know Netflix had found the right analyst.
Eagle and Kuechly reportedly auditioned together in early July at NBC's Stamford, Connecticut studios, with The Athletic's Andrew Marchand reporting at the time that the Hall-of-Fame linebacker "showed immediate chemistry" with Eagle, leading the streamer to select him for its refreshed broadcast booth. Netflix, Marchand added, had hoped to hire a fresh voice for color commentary this season after borrowing analysts from other networks in 2024 and 2025.
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And on a recent episode of the Sports Media Watch podcast, Eagle broke down exactly what stood out during that audition, and what it revealed about Kuechly as a broadcaster still finding his footing in a new medium.
"It was unquestioned that his knowledge for the game was an elite level," Eagle said. "I just watched him as a player, and you can see that one, the knowledge for the game is clear, but also the preparation going into each week, and that's what he brought with him to the audition. We called a game from last season, sat down, and immediately, he just, it was as if he could see things happening before they happen."
Football IQ was never the concern, Eagle said. What Netflix actually needed to see was whether that encyclopedic knowledge could translate into a three-hour broadcast.
"That's the question mark for somebody who's never really done it, but when we sat down, he was comfortable fast," Eagle said. "You get into a rhythm, and then you just let it rip, and then I think the last part was personality, where this is the other unknown. The player stuff, when guys are film junkies to the level that he was, and that's what he was known as, somebody who lived in the film room, when you have all that stuff, we already knew that the question marks are the comfortability and the personality, and I think him showing his personality was really what sold everybody, and his willingness to rally back and forth and joke around when it was the right time for it, but then get serious when it was the right time for that."
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Eagle said the audition also revealed something about how Kuechly takes feedback, which he considers a predictor of long-term growth.
"And then the last thing that I would say that I think really left an impression was how coachable he is," Eagle said. "He was thirsty for more knowledge. He was thirsty to improve, and this was only in one day. And so if this is day one, how's it gonna be day 10 and day 15 and day 100? And when you just do it more and more and more, he's naturally gonna get even better as he goes."
SMW's Armond Broady pushed Eagle on a specific concern, whether Kuechly's football vocabulary risks alienating viewers who don't know the difference between a down block and a gap scheme.
"Yeah, I think that goes back to the coachability thing," Eagle said. "That's exactly the stuff that he was trying to figure out, how much should I be pulling back from this, how much should I go all in on this, and we all know that he's very close with Greg Olsen , and Greg has quickly become, in many people's opinion, the best analyst doing this right now, but certainly in the discussion for that title. He's similar. I did the first year of Netflix with Greg, and you can see the similarities: one, how they see the game, two, the passion for the game, but certainly it almost feels like a doctorate in football when you're talking to them, and Greg is like a beautiful mind of football in many ways."
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That formidable depth of knowledge, though, is a double-edged sword. A decorated linebacker fluent in football speak doesn't automatically know how to distill that vocabulary for a casual viewer who's never dissected a defensive scheme in his life, and Eagle said Kuechly is actively grappling with that balance, drawing on hard-won lessons from his time calling games for CBS Sports Network and on Panthers radio broadcasts.
"What radio really teaches you is to get your point out quick and to do it in a way that's digestible to people who can't see anything," Eagle said. "And so if you're using big terms and advanced terms when people are driving in their cars, they're gonna be completely confused. I think doing that for the entire year last year really helped his growth.
"And so I think doing that for the entire year last year really helped his growth, and now it's about continuing to take those because you don't want to completely eliminate the advanced talk. That's what's going to make him special at doing this, but you want to do it in a way that it becomes digestible. I think of a guy like Jon Gruden, who became so great on Monday Night Football , but this is a guy who, similar, when you actually sit down and listen to him just talk about the game, everything is, forget advanced, it's past that. It's multiple degrees past that."
We're also multiple degrees past the point where Kuechly was some unknown quantity in NFL broadcasting circles. Right now, he's the hottest name in the business, and it shows in just how many networks want a piece of him.
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Marchand reported in May that CBS had shown interest in bringing Kuechly onto The NFL Toda y, part of a broader pursuit that also included Russell Wilson , in the wake of Kuechly's star turn calling ESPN's MNF Playbook altcast. That interest never turned into a studio seat — the role ultimately went to Wilson and Kyle Long — but it kept Kuechly firmly on CBS's radar, as the former NFL linebacker will also call some games for the network.
Kuechly will also join Peyton Manning on The Breakdown , the Monday Night Football companion show that lives on the ESPN app. Manning built the show with Bill Belichick two seasons ago as a more cerebral lead-in to his looser ManningCast work with brother Eli. The Breakdown did not air during the 2025 NFL season after Belichick renounced his media gigs to take the head coaching job at North Carolina.
Eagle and Kuechly are set to make their debut together on Sept. 10, calling Netflix's Week 1 broadcast of Rams-49ers from Melbourne, Australia, roughly a month after the latter's formal induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
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