I’d appreciate it if some of you could drop the top name and maybe an honorable mention of your favorite football minds that break down players, teams (college or pro), tape, etc. They can be on YouTube, Twitter, etc just pass them along when convenient. Thanks in advance!
Fran Duffy is the Eagles’ internal media dude that is hands down the best in the league.
I watch him particularly when he’s covering like opponents. For instance, they played Minny earlier this year and he’ll spend time looking ahead of the game as well as a review after the game.
Unfortunately, they covered the Lions too early in the season, garnering exactly zero effort from him or Cosell on us. In years past, you would find a deeper look at our scheme and performance from Fran, just as an upcoming opponent or as an opponent to a team they’re about to play than you’ll find anywhere else.
Anyhow, he’s my go-to NFL analyst. Of course, Baldy provides good content on Twitter, but Fran is full-on professional in content and production.
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Brian Baldinger. Great breakdowns on Twitter/instagram. The players respect him also.
Dan Orlovsky and Chris Simms are the other 2 I enjoy listening to.
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I second this. Fran and Cosell are fantastic.
I also really like Diante Lee, but he hasn’t been doing as much since he left PFF for the Athletic. Still finding his feet I think.
Ted Nguyen also does great work for the Athletic, especially with X’s and O’s.
I love the guys on the Around the NFL podcast, but they’re really more entertaining/funny than anything else. They know what they’re talking about (especially Greg), but they’re not gonna break it down all that extensively.
Ben Solak over at the Ringer is also another fave, that guy has a savage intellect. He looks like a suburban high school kid which takes some getting used to, but I mostly listen on podcast so it’s fine.
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I miss Ron jaworski and merrell hodge in nfl matchup. Kurt Warner does a good quarterback breakdown. I like baldinger. Mark schlereth is also really good. Pretty much any former offensive lineman.
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I tell you what I miss are the pre-draft film sessions that Mayock would do with Baldinger on NFLN. Hard to believe, but it’s been probably about 10 years since they were together, but man, they used to really dive into players in college and then pull up tape of a good NFL comp. Man, I miss that stuff. Even while Mayock was there, they had drifted away from that type of intelligent content that focused on the players to more of the split-screen commentator-focused coverage. I think the network was doing so well off of NCAA content that they were opening themselves to a pretty significant bill that the NCAA might have been threatening to send.
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Agreed, though Simms can have his “post something crazy to get attention” moments. I like him overall, though.
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This Chris Simms highlight reel is pretty good.
Schlereth??? This guy bugs the shit out of me. I can’t stand him. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone more full of themself as Schlereth. The guy loves to hear hisself talk and he won’t shut up! (I will say though that the Tigers TV guy is worse)To me, he just comes across like an an arrogant know it all. Now he DOES know some football. He played many years and was a good lineman. Credit given. Bully for him! But as far as listening to him? Hell no. Over explains every little thing, blah, blah, blah, he did that because, blah, blah, blah. Just hearing his voice makes me thankful for the mute button. More annoying than that damn ‘Liberty Insurance’ jingle. Or that gloom and doom dame on ‘Life Below Zero’. Ugh, fast forward every time.
Lol thanks for the info! I like those guys too.
I like Chris Simms too as we get really close to the draft, he’ll get ahead of himself on guys sometimes but he can be a little bit more of a free thinker than some who are regularly putting content out. Not my go to or anything like that but his takes can be refreshing come April.
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Did I overlook the Mike Renner suggestion? Haha I thought for sure someone would mention him. I don’t mind em.
It’s a to each his own kind of thing. I’d much rather listen to schlereth than Michael Irvin. Honestly though I don’t really watch any of those guys anymore. It’s less about football and more about them listening to themselves talk. I liked those shows when they just broke down film and talked about what was happening in the game.
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He also swears a fair amount so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
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Greg Cosell is my current favorite as well. Feels like it’s grandpa teaching me about football. There is a comforting almost nostalgic quality to his voice and cadence. 
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My 2 favorite’s for expert level analysis and to get greater insight into the game are espnbaby and Stephen A. Smith.
All jokes aside I have been a fan of Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan for years. I remember a game where Tony Romo had like 500 yards and 5 TDs but threw the game losinig interception vs the Broncos. Guys like Stephen A gave no insight other than “Romo choked!” I eagerly awaited Jim and Pat to cover what happened, and they didn’t let me down. They went thru every detail of the playcall on both offense and defense, what Romo saw presnap, what Romo saw immediately post snap…and then they did a detailed breakdown basicall “frame by frame” of how the play unfolded and that Romo made the right read but he was throwing from a compromised position…which took just enough zip off the ball that the defender could make a play on it. I stopped even attempting to watch the “TV guys” talk about the games after that.
Like many here I like Dan-O alot. We just have to remember that he is 80% good analyst and 20% clickbait personality. He has to be to survive, so I can respect that. But just keep that in mind that he doesn’t actually believe 20% of the shit he says. And speaking of former Lions QBs I also like JT O’Sullivan’s breakdowns on QBs he does on youtube. Good stuff.
One show that is starting to give good insight is the Pat McAfee show. He has segements where he has former players breaking down film from the previous weeks games. Darius Butler goes over some defensive back stuff. If anyone remembers when Justin Jefferson got WIDE OPEN against the Packers for a touchdown the first week of the season and we all wondered how that could happen…Butler explained it. He also has AQ Shipley on to analyze offensive line play from the previous week. AQ absolutely LOVES the Lions offensive line and how our coaches use them. He said Detroit is the kind of team you want to play for if you are an offensive lineman.
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Used to be Goose, Cosell is a smart guy who does great coverage and who I give most weight to these days.
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OK. I’ll give you that. I’ve heard some that I just don’t know what he’s saying. Heavy accent. Sometimes I have trouble with heavy accents. Lol. I have to use closed captioning whenever Willy the groundskeeper’s on the Simpsons.
I think the problem lies with mostly us older guys. We grew up listening to guys like Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, Keith Jackson, etc. they didn’t talk just to hear themselves. Younger fans won’t get to enjoy that.
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Charlie Campbell. Hands down, he’s my go-to for finding unique, and astute, perspectives on prospects that aren’t simply consensus regurgitation of what you find everywhere else.
For instance, his top two corners are Gonzalez out of Oregon and Max Melton out of Rutgers. Ringo is down in the early teens, Cam Smith is like 8, and Joey Porter Jr is 3rd. It’s unique, it challenges the status quo and it’s thought provoking
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