What would you do if you launched a major project with a colleague, only to see them get handed a brand-new deal while your future hangs in the balance? That’s the precise predicament facing three-time Super Bowl winner Troy Aikman at ESPN. Ever since his playing days with the Dallas Cowboys, the Hall of Fame broadcaster has never played out the final year of a contract. He expected an extension before this season began. Instead, negotiations hit a standstill, opening the door to wild rumors that ESPN might replace him with far more captivating voices.

“Troy Aikman hasn’t got a new contract. His talks are on hold,” Whitlock said on the Fearless With Jason Whitlock podcast. “Pat McAfee, they’ve been sprinkling everywhere on ESPN. Why not Monday Night Football? He was a player in the National Football League. But let me put this twist on it. I wouldn’t put Pat McAfee opposite Joe Buck. But I would put Pat McAfee and Peyton Manning opposite Joe Buck.” 

It is a radical proposal, mostly because breaking up Aikman and Joe Buck feels like rewriting sports media history. The pair stands as the NFL’s most consistent broadcasting tandem, a partnership forged back in 2002 alongside Cris Collinsworth in a three-man booth, before solidifying into an iconic duo in 2005. Across their 21 seasons together, they have called more than 290 regular-season games, over 40 playoff matchups, 18 NFC Championships, and six Super Bowls (XXXIX, XLII, XLV, XLVIII, LI, and LIV), earning multiple Sports Emmy nominations along the way.

When ESPN lured Aikman to Monday Night Football in March 2022 with a blockbuster $90 million contract alongside Buck, the move was hailed as a golden era for the network’s flagship broadcast. Re-signing the pair in tandem seemed almost automatic; it was unthinkable to imagine Aikman calling a game without Buck by his side. Yet when contract extension talks opened, only Buck walked away with a new $108 million six-year deal. Suddenly, Aikman remains the sole unresolved piece of football’s premier commentary booth, a dynamic that led Whitlock to suggest the once-untouchable analyst might actually be replaceable.

In Whitlock’s eyes, swapping Aikman for a McAfee-Manning alliance is a synergy waiting to happen. Having shared the field together with the Indianapolis Colts, McAfee and Manning possess an organic, built-in chemistry that could instantly inject a fresh, unpredictable energy into the broadcast.

“Peyton Manning and Pat McAfee replacing Troy Aikman in the Monday Night Football booth, I think, is a real possibility, and would have real upside, and would be pretty interesting,” he continued. “I’m a huge Troy Aikman guy. But ESPN seems to be wanting to try new things. And they seem to want to sprinkle Pat McAfee everywhere. I could see him [on] Monday Night Football, College GameDay, and still hosting his show.”

McAfee already has one foot in the door, having secured a position on the Monday Night Countdown crew before this season. And, as Whitlock noted, McAfee is pretty much everywhere on ESPN’s football programming. The former Colts punter has pretty much become the face of the network. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that McAfee’s camp was also negotiating for a bigger contract with ESPN, which could give him more than $60 million a year. That would also perhaps mean McAfee’s portfolio gets bigger, and it has this year with the Monday Night Countdown role.

Joe Buck, on the other hand, wants Aikman to be at ESPN.

“I’m pretty well on record, having begged out of my last years at FOX to follow him to ESPN, where I stand on all that,” Buck said of Aikman’s deal on 97.5 The Fanatic. “I legitimately love the guy like a brother. We’re basically the same age; I’m 57, he’s 59. We’ve both been through divorce. We’re both girl dads. 25 years, you’re sharing a lot of life together. Forget games and in the booth and all that stuff. 

“So, I hope so. I mean, both of us were up. It wasn’t like we were doing some national signing day where we walk in arm-in-arm and then sign contracts at the same time. We’ve always kind of kept that stuff separate. I’m obviously hopeful, to say the least, that something gets done. But that’s kind of his world, and ESPN’s world, and I’ve got to kind of mind my own yard in that stuff. I think that’s the best way to be.” 

Buck’s statement highlights a startling reality: if the chemistry is undeniably there, why hasn’t the Hall of Famer been paid?

The answer lies in a rapidly shifting sports media economy. First, there is an expanding market divide among broadcasting royalty. Historically, game analysts are the marquee attractions who command the top dollar. Shortly after Aikman signed his five-year, $18 million annual deal with ESPN in 2022, Tom Brady completely shattered the market by landing a staggering 10-year, $375 million mega-deal with Fox Sports ($37.5 million per year). The current delay likely stems from a tense game of financial tug-of-war, with Aikman and ESPN struggling to find a sweet spot somewhere between his $18 million baseline and Brady’s stratospheric ceiling.

Second, a broader game of executive musical chairs is looming over the commentary landscape. With Tony Romo on indefinite leave at CBS and top-tier analysts like Fox’s Greg Olsen, Amazon Prime Video’s Kirk Herbstreit, and CBS’s J.J. Watt all reaching the end of their contracts after this season, both sides hold significant leverage, and plenty of alternative options.

For now, ESPN is holding its cards close to the chest, refusing to address expiring contract situations while the primary focus remains on the screen.

“With this historic season for ESPN now underway, our entire focus is on bringing fans the best possible football coverage, culminating with our first Super Bowl,” says Josh Krulewitz, ESPN’s EVP of communications. “To that end, we won’t be addressing talent contract specifics before the Super Bowl.”

While conversations between both camps continue behind closed doors, sources confirm that no deal is imminent for Aikman. It leaves ESPN navigating a delicate dilemma, especially as the network prepares to broadcast its historic first Super Bowl on February 14, 2027, with the looming question of who will ultimately anchor their booth for years to come.

A McAfee-Manning takeover would undeniably inject wild, unpredictable energy into the Monday Night Football booth. But with Joe Buck firmly backing his friend, ESPN must carefully weigh the risk of losing Aikman just to chase a new media trend.