Here’s a look at the announcing assignments for Week 3 of the NFL season, with some discussion of a featured game in each slot based on broadcasters, matchups, or both. All times are Eastern.
Thursday, September 19
Featured (only) game: New England at NY Jets
Prime Video 8:15 p.m.
Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, Kaylee Hartung
Spanish: Miguel Gurwitz, Rolando Cantú
Westwood One Radio: Ian Eagle, Devin McCourty
The Jets started this year with a disappointing 32-19 Monday Night Football loss to the San Francisco 49ers but bounced back with a 24-17 win over the Tennessee Titans Sunday. There are plenty of debates about their roster, including from WFAN’s Tiki Barber, and there’s further debate about quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who has thrown for just 343 yards and three touchdowns (with an interception and a 60.8 percent completion mark) across the two games.
Meanwhile, the post-Bill Belichick Patriots are showing some promise under Jerod Mayo, beating the Cincinnati Bengals 16-10 in Week 1 and only falling 23-20 in overtime against the Seattle Seahawks last week. But there are still debates about how long rookie QB Drake Maye should sit. For now, they’re going with Jacoby Brissett, and he has a difficult job behind an OL that’s allowed the second-most pressures through two weeks.
We’ll see what they can do against the Jets’ pass rush.
Sunday, September 22, early games
NY Giants at Cleveland
Fox 1 p.m.
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma, Megan Olivi
Chicago at Indianapolis
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, Jason McCourty, AJ Ross
Houston at Minnesota
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, Evan Washburn
ESPN Radio: Steve Levy, Mike Tannenbaum
Featured game: Philadelphia at New Orleans
Fox 1 p.m.
Joe Davis, Greg Olsen, Pam Oliver
Compass Media Radio: Chris Carrino, Brian Baldinger
The 2-0 Saints are one of the most surprising stories of this season so far, and a big part of that is about the play of QB Derek Carr. That led to The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz leading his QB rankings this week with a notable paragraph on Carr:
Through two weeks this season, no quarterback is playing better ball than Derek Carr—and he’s doing it in unexpected ways. He’s chucking bombs downfield, he’s staying composed in the face of pressure, and he’s even doing touchdown dances now. This is not the Derek Carr I know and used to despise watching—the one who’s thrown the ball away on fourth down multiple times and who once threw a checkdown on an end-of-half Hail Mary. If this continues, I might become one of those conspiracy theorists who believe the deep state is secretly replacing celebrities with clones. This just can’t be the same guy.
Ruiz notes that there are still reasons for skepticism that Carr (who’s even now doing Michael Jackson crotch-grab celebrations (which he just got fined for) and sky points) can keep it up, though, and that’s why he only ranks him 15th overall. And we’ll see how Carr and the Saints do against an Eagles’ defense that’s likely still upset by their collapse in a last-second loss to the Atlanta Falcons (which even ruined Scott Van Pelt’s late-game prediction) on Monday Night Football this past week.
LA Chargers at Pittsburgh
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson
Denver at Tampa Bay
Fox 1 p.m.
Tim Brando, Matt Millen, Sarah Kustok
Green Bay at Tennessee
Fox 1 p.m.
Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, Laura Okmin
Sports USA Radio: Larry Kahn, Stephen Gostkowski
Sunday, September 22, late games
Carolina at Las Vegas
CBS/Paramount+ 4:05 p.m.
Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, Aditi Kinkhabwala
Featured game: Miami at Seattle
CBS/Paramount+ 4:05 p.m.
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green, Melanie Collins
ESPN Radio: Roxy Bernstein, Tom Ramsey
It would be easy to spotlight Tom Brady’s third game in the Fox booth (and third calling the Dallas Cowboys), but let’s do something different this week (and that information is below for those who want it, and most of the country will be able to see it even without Sunday Ticket). Instead, let’s look at an intriguing Dolphins-Seahawks matchup (the CBS singleheader, available in the Pacific Northwest and Central/South Florida, but also Philadelphia, Green Bay, New Orleans, Nashville, and Cleveland).
There, Seattle’s a surprising 2-0 and atop the NFC West, with Geno Smith throwing for 498 yards and two touchdowns thus far. The Seahawks’ defense has also only allowed 20 points per game and a league-best 4.2 yards per pass attempt against thus far. Meanwhile, the Dolphins now face many questions with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa placed on injured reserve following a concussion in last week’s Thursday Night Football loss to the Buffalo Bills, and there’s been lots of discussion about what’s ahead for him, too.
For now, though, the Dolphins will turn to backup Skylar Thompson, whom head coach Mike McDaniel said they have “real” and “earned” confidence in. This is one case where the Thursday Night Schedule can perhaps help rather than hurt teams; playing last Thursday meant Miami got more time to practice with their new quarterback than if Tagovailoa had been hurt on a Sunday or Monday.
We’ll see how that plays out Sunday, and how Harlan and Green call it.
Detroit at Arizona
Fox 4:25 p.m.
Chris Myers, Mark Schlereth, Jen Hale
Baltimore at Dallas
Fox 4:25 p.m.
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi
San Francisco at LA Rams
FOX 4:25 p.m.
Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez, Kristina Pink
Sports USA Radio: John Ahler, Alex Mack
Sunday, Sept. 22, Sunday Night Football
Featured (only) game: Kansas City at Atlanta
NBC/Universo/Peacock 8:20 p.m.
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark
Universo: Miguel Gurwitz, Rolando Cantú, Ariana Figuera
Westwood One Radio: Ryan Radtke, Mike Golic
The defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs being 2-0 doesn’t feel particularly surprising.
Still, it may be more notable that they’ve only outscored opponents by eight so far (including a one-point victory over the Bengals Sunday). Meanwhile, the Falcons pulled off that great escape against the Eagles last week, a nice bounce-back from a Week 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But there are still questions about their overall play and about quarterback Kirk Cousins, who’s thrown for just 396 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions so far.
Monday, September 23, Monday Night Football
Jacksonville at Buffalo
ESPN/ESPN Deportes 7:30 p.m.
Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, Louis Reddick, Laura Rutledge
ESPN Deportes: Rebeca Landa, Sebastián Martinez-Christensen, MJ Acosta-Ruiz
Westwood One Radio: John Sadak, Ross Tucker
Featured game: Washington at Cincinnati
ABC/ESPN+ 8:15 p.m.
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters
Westwood One Radio: Kevin Harlan, Kurt Warner
This is the first week of four where Disney will have two Monday Night Football games, one on ABC and one on ESPN.
It seems likely that the better matchup will usually wind up on ABC, given the broadcast network’s wider reach, but this week’s is more debatable. The only 2-0 team involved is the Bills. That game also has the closer spread (Buffalo -5) despite the Jaguars being 0-2 so far. But the Commanders and Bengals may wind up being a fascinating game, despite those teams entering 1-1 and 0-2 and despite Cincinnati being 7.5-point favorites.
The really interesting thing to watch for here is the battle of quarterbacks who won the Heisman Trophy at LSU.
2020 No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow got off to a great start in his first season that year but tore his ACL and MCL after a low hit (in a game against Washington, no less) in Week 11. He bounced back in 2021, led the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance, and got them back to the AFC championship game the next year, but he tore a wrist ligament last November and missed the rest of the season. The 0-2 start so far certainly isn’t what he wanted for his comeback, but he’s thrown for 422 yards and two TDs with no picks (and a 67.7 percent completion mark) to date, and the Bengals have lost two close games by a total of seven points.
Meanwhile, Daniels was selected second overall by the Commanders this spring, and he’s gotten off to a good start, throwing for 410 yards with no interceptions (albeit with no TDs as well) and a 75.5 percent completion mark to date. But there are a lot of questions about the talent around him, and while Washington is 1-1, they’ve been outscored 55-41 on the year, posting a 37-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1 before pulling out a narrow 21-18 home win against the New York Giants last week. We’ll see what Daniels can do against a stingy Bengals’ pass defense that’s allowed the second-lowest yards through the air per game (136.0) to date.
H/T Sammy for the listings!