Troy Aikman knows that his contract with ESPN will be over at the end of the 2026 season. He knows that he’ll become a free agent and is already anticipating his next landing spot. His words and the situation surrounding his ESPN tenure have left people wondering who will replace Aikman.
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“I think they already have the answer,” Phil Simms weighed in on Aikman’s replacement during a conversation on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams. “We just don’t know it yet. So, there’s somebody out there, maybe Joe [Buck] really liked this guy, whoever it is, and he wants to work with him. Maybe ESPN has their guy and wants him in there.
“This won’t come out of nowhere. This would be something, when they name the next guy that’s gonna work with Joe, it’s gonna be really interesting who it is. And there’ll be a connection already when they announce it.”
According to Adams, covering the NFL is a hard and special job. Since Aikman has been doing it for decades and has personally experienced the chaos of Super Bowl games, Adams wondered if ESPN was making a mistake by walking away from the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback.
“The easy answer is yes,” the two-time Super Bowl winner noted. “But if it’s what we think and see and hear, then they got their eye on somebody else, and I think that’s what it comes down to.”
After spending more than two decades together as announcers, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck have developed a few cracks. The problems began when Buck received a six-year, $108 million contract extension with ESPN. He’ll stay with the network till 2032. But ESPN gave Aikman no indication about his future with the network, which likely means he is nearing his exit from the broadcast.
“I’ve never gone into the last year of a contract ever since I signed with the Dallas Cowboys,” Aikman told the Sports Media Podcast’s Richard Deitsch. “And so I thought that it would be done. It’s not. When it might get done, if it gets done, is anyone’s guess. And it’s really not something that I’m putting a lot of energy into.”
As the tension between Aikman and Buck rose, Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson took to X and applied for the role. He simply put a question mark after “Ocho & Joe Buck.” Meanwhile, The Spun suggested Greg Olsen, Luke Keuchly, Jason Kelce, Pat McAfee, and Tony Romo as five possible replacements for Aikman. Sports Illustrated further added Mike Tomlin and Jason McCourty to the list. The fans have also speculated that McAfee would be a good option for Aikman’s replacement.
Whether ESPN plans to promote a rising star or make a splashy external hire, Aikman is certain to enter free agency in 2027. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see who gets to announce the games alongside Buck in the next season.