When a booth shake-up hits the NFL, the rumor mill spins fast, and Pat McAfee’s name has landed in the mix almost immediately. After weeks of speculation linking him to a color commentator job in the wake of the Joe Buck-Troy Aikman drama, McAfee has finally spoken up.

“I am not supposed to be a color commentator for football. That is something I’ve decided I had a chance to try a couple of times,” McAfee said on The Pat McAfee Show. “I hated it. I got bored for the field pass. I do play-by-play. I am not a good enough play-by-play person to be doing any of these big-time games, but I am pretty perfect for an alt cast.

“We have been very, very happy and content with where I am at. My brain in the way I operate, is not good to be a color commentator for a football game in which there’s a lot of this happening, and then a couple of these. You drop me into wrestling though as a color commentator with Michael Cole, the greatest in the business. I’m having the time of my life.”

Pat McAfee has worked as a live-game color commentator, but exclusively for college football (on Fox Sports and ESPN’s Thursday Night College Football teams) and extensively for the WWE on SmackDown and Raw.

However, when it comes to the NFL, McAfee has never served as a traditional color commentator.

Following the alleged dispute between Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, many speculated that Pat McAfee would receive an offer from ESPN to co-host with Buck.

Buck and Aikman are currently in their 25th season working together in the broadcast booth. In 2023, Buck and Aikman surpassed the 21-year Summerall-Madden partnership, setting a new NFL broadcast record.

But recently, they have found themselves in an alleged dispute following a contract disparity. Last month, Joe Buck finalized a six-year, $108 million contract extension with ESPN. This contract locks him in as the network’s lead play-by-play voice through the 2031 season and secures his role for ESPN’s upcoming Super Bowl broadcasts.

Meanwhile, Aikman is in the final year of his current contract, which expires immediately after the Super Bowl in February 2027. At the same time, the network has not offered Aikman a formal contract extension.

Media outlets like Front Office Sports speculated that ESPN’s upcoming Super Bowl LXI “Field Pass” alt-cast, which McAfee is hosting, could serve as a trial run for him to jump into the main Monday Night Football booth. However, Pat McAfee immediately shut down the rumors while sharing his thoughts on the Buck-Aikman drama.

“I would just like to go on the record here very early in this particular program, and say I’ve already tweeted it out that it’s not real and there’s been zero conversation about it and a lot of people have said it but there’s Monday Night Football contract business happening in a very public way,” McAfee said. “And we are big fans of Joe and Troy and of the Monday Night Football operation. That’s for them to figure out.”

As for Pat McAfee’s career, he is seemingly turning into one of the bigger faces on ESPN now.

While he had two years remaining on his initial five-year, $85 million licensing deal, ESPN allegedly opened early negotiations in summer 2026. They are finalizing a massive extension worth a staggering $60 million to $65 million per year.

As part of his expanded NFL footprint for the 2026 football season, McAfee officially joined ESPN’s main pregame desk as a permanent analyst, sharing the desk with Scott Van Pelt, Jason Kelce, and Marcus Spears.

At the same time, the former punter also continues to headline his incredibly popular daily three-hour program, The Pat McAfee Show, and serves as the centerpiece of College GameDay alongside Nick Saban.