Joe Buck and Peyton Manning are now neighbors, though ESPN would much prefer they become boothmates.
According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Manning is ESPN's top choice to replace Troy Aikman on Monday Night Football, even if Marchand stops short of calling him the favorite. Writing in his latest sports media Q&A , Marchand expects ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro to call Manning and pitch him on joining Buck in the booth. Marchand also noted that Buck recently made Denver his primary residence and now lives about five minutes from Manning, which would at least make for an easy carpool to the airport.
"I think Peyton is the No. 1 choice to replace Aikman, but I don't think he is the favorite," Marchand writes. "What does that mean? Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN's chairman, will likely place a call to Peyton and pitch the idea of going into the booth. ESPN already has a huge contract with Manning and his Omaha Productions that includes, among other things, doing the Manningcast with his brother, Eli, for about 11 games."
Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
ESPN took care of Buck in September, when The Athletic reported that he had signed a six-year extension worth roughly $108 million, though Puck's Dylan Byers later reported that the deal had actually been finalized in May . The contract keeps Buck on Monday Night Football through ESPN's next Super Bowl in 2031 and gave him what he told Richard Deitsch he wanted back in April, when he said he hoped to finish his career at ESPN . Aikman received no comparable assurance and began the final year of his contract unsigned, telling Deitsch that his negotiations with the network had stalled despite his firm expectation that an agreement would be reached before the season. He conceded that Buck's extension was "no question" a factor as he contemplates what comes next.
Aikman also learned about Buck's extension the same way the public did. Byers reported that Aikman felt betrayed after ESPN, Buck and their shared agency, CAA, kept him in the dark for months about the early extension, during which time the network floated the possibility of pairing Buck with a new partner next season, and one source told Byers that Aikman viewed the silence from Buck and Pitaro as "the ultimate act of betrayal." Marchand later reported that before the Oct. 12 Bills-Rams game at SoFi Stadium, Aikman sat down with Pitaro for a tense, hour-long conversation about the rift with his partner and whether the two had any future together , shortly before the booth argument that Front Office Sports' Ryan Glasspiegel first reported.
Three days later, Aikman told Jimmy Traina that ESPN appeared prepared to go in a different direction since the two sides had never entered negotiations, and before the ensuing Monday Night Football broadcast between the 49ers and Commanders, Buck gathered the production crew to apologize for his part in the confrontation and implore everyone to move past it, according to Byers. Aikman has since put his odds of returning to television next season at 50/50, and his contract expires in March, raising the prospect that Super Bowl LXI in February will be the final game of a partnership that began at Fox in 2002 and became the longest-running booth pairing in NFL history.
With Aikman likely gone, ESPN's search begins where it has stalled before, at Manning's doorstep in Denver. After Jon Gruden returned to coaching with the Raiders in 2018, Manning declined ESPN's offer to join Monday Night Football and then turned down Fox's Thursday Night Football package, even though both networks were reportedly willing to pay him around $10 million a year . ESPN approached him again the following year, and Manning told the Denver Post's Ryan O'Halloran that his answer might never change .
"I talked to the Monday Night Football folks. I enjoyed talking to the them. I had great conversation. It wasn't the right time this year. Maybe it will never be."
ESPN ultimately found a way to bring Manning to Monday nights without asking him to commit to a full season in the booth. The ManningCast premiered in 2021 and became popular enough that ESPN and Omaha Productions agreed to a nine-year extension in 2024 that carries the partnership through 2034, with the show's sixth season covering 11 regular-season games on ESPN2 and Super Bowl LXI . Marchand noted that Peyton and Eli call those games from home and choose which ones they want to work, and he believes that flexibility makes Manning more likely to turn ESPN down. He did suggest a hybrid arrangement in which the brothers divide the ManningCast schedule and still work some games together, though Marchand admitted that outcome is more unlikely than likely.
Marchand reported last week that Olsen is widely seen as the frontrunner , while Puck's John Ourand said his best sources expect Olsen to end up in the Monday Night Football booth next season. Olsen has every reason to leave Fox, where he called Super Bowl LVII and won a Sports Emmy as the lead analyst beside Kevin Burkhardt before Tom Brady's $375 million contract pushed him to the No. 2 team, and Deitsch reported that the network had not negotiated with him about a deal beyond this season.
"So he is sort of the favorite," Marchand said of Olsen, " — unless Peyton goes, 'Omaha! Omaha!' and pulls an audible."
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