With the NFL gearing up for training camps, the postseason, and the season beyond, it looks like ESPN is now finalizing its own 2026 season roster. After months of deliberation, the network has finally started swinging the wrecking ball. But amid all the layoffs, what happens to Mina Kimes’ future at ESPN?
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“Mina Kimes is safe,” Outkick’s Bobby Burack reported on X. “[Cam] Newton was the last big name on the layoff list. There are a few more that will come out this afternoon, but no one big.”
Kimes joined the network in 2014 after a run as an award-winning business reporter. She built her way into a senior writer and an NFL Live analyst, while also hosting The Mina Kimes Show. ESPN gave her a multi-year deal in 2023, and that contract now sits alongside a fresh round of cuts tied to ESPN’s $3 billion NFL Network acquisition. Disney and ESPN bigwigs had already spelled out impending cuts as they merged NFL Media into Bristol.
Mina Kimes is safe. Newton was the last big name on the layoff list. There are a few more that will come out this afternoon, but no one big. https://t.co/riCQbrIjaG
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) July 21, 2026
Meanwhile, Ryan Clark landed on the wrong side of that line, learning about his layoff mid-broadcast on NFL Live. He has since spoken up, noting that he will “continue to build” himself as the Network he spent a decade with now moves on.
Cam Newton was reportedly the next big name. Burack reported that he will no longer be debating alongside Stephen A. Smith this year, and that the network is already looking for replacements to fill in for him.
“ESPN has paid people between $2-$6 million a year to be Stephen A’s main debate partner on Mondays during the football season since Kellerman left,” Burack wrote in another post. “ESPN has now fired them all: Michael Irvin, Shannon Sharpe, and Cam Newton. I’m told Smith was intrigued by Jameis Winston, but he is likely to play in the NFL this season.”
Senior NFL insider Tom Pelissero is perhaps the biggest shocker of them all. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that Pelissero was also laid off alongside Karl Ravech. The network already had Adam Schefter, and Ian Rapoport was en route to get a new deal this offseason as well.
Now, all of this isn’t just certain media personalities dodging a round of cuts. ESPN is choosing a tape-driven, multi-platform NFL analyst in Mina Kimes over the expensive Monday schedule. Kimes staying while Clark, Newton, and Pelissero fall off the depth chart says a lot about what the new version of ESPN’s football coverage is going to look like.