It looks like ESPN is locking up all its bigwigs before the 2026 regular season begins, as that mission has now reached the network’s top insider: Adam Schefter.

“Adam Schefter and ESPN are closing in on a long-term extension that would keep him at the network several years into the 2030s,” reported Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports. “Financial terms of the deal were not immediately known. The New York Post reported in 2022 that Schefter’s last contract with ESPN was worth in the neighborhood of $9 million per year. An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment.”

Schefter’s reported extension follows a pattern ESPN has set across its NFL insider room. Earlier this year, in April, Ian Rapoport secured a long-term deal after ESPN’s $3 billion NFL Network acquisition was finalized in January. Tom Pelissero was already under a multi-year deal he got in 2020 from the NFL Network. Mike Garafolo, the third face of The Insiders, is also reportedly “closing in” on a new contract with ESPN, per a previous report by Glasspiegel. Now Schefter joins that list of football staples.

Adam Schefter has anchored ESPN’s NFL coverage since 2009. By 2014, he’d already earned the honor of being named the “Most Influential Tweeter in New York,” by New York Magazine, as well as ‘Media Person of the Year,’ by SI, among other accolades. From the Adam Schefter podcast, through NFL Countdown during the season, all the way to the tweets that shake the league, his 17-year tenure makes him the face of the network’s NFL coverage. That’s the asset ESPN is protecting here.

The network has also made moves to get Jeremy Fowler, Kimberley Martin, Dan Graziano, Jeff Darlington, and Judy Battista under various deals. With September less than two months away, ESPN is determined to gather the greatest media cast the league has ever seen.

In his report, Glasspiegel also noted that Schefter had already made his intentions clear in April, when he said there’s “no f*****g chance” that the 59-year-old would be retiring any time soon. And now we know that the timeline runs at least until 2030, if not beyond.

Rapoport and Pelissero are already locked in. Mike Garafolo is also near the finish line. Adam Schefter is the last piece. Lock him in before kickoff, and ESPN’s insider room doesn’t need any more moves after this.