ESPN reportedly close to setting new NFL Network broadcast booth partnerships

New details have emerged on ESPN’s rebuilt No. 2 NFL broadcast team.

According to Front Office Sports, Dave Pasch is expected to pair with Kurt Warner, while Bob Wischusen will work alongside his college football partner, Louis Riddick, splitting the network’s expanded slate of non-Monday Night Football games this season. Jason Kelce’s involvement remains “fluid,” per the report, with no final decision yet on whether he will join either booth.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand first reported in April that ESPN planned to break up the existing trio of Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, and Riddick, since the new NFL package skews heavily international and conflicts with Fowler’s college football commitments on Saturdays. Marchand followed in May with word that Pasch “had the inside track” for the play-by-play role, and by June, he’d reported ESPN was “zeroing in” on splitting the games between Pasch and Wischunsen.

Pasch made his own move official that same month, signing a multiyear extension with ESPN that folded NFL duties into his existing college football, college basketball, and NBA work, while giving up the radio voice role for the Arizona Cardinals in the process.

Wischusen has been a play-by-play voice on ESPN and ABC’s college basketball and football telecasts since 2005 and has been the radio play-by-play voice for the New York Jets since 2002.

Both Pasch and Wischusen will continue calling college football games on ESPN when they are not calling NFL games.

FOS also reported last month that Molly McGrath is moving from the college football beat to become the sole sideline reporter for the new NFL Network package, replacing Katie George and Peter Schrager, who won’t return in their prior roles on ESPN’s No. 2 NFL broadcast team. McGrath will also serve as the top fill-in host for Laura Rutledge on NFL Live. Schrager could still see occasional sideline work if the schedule produces a doubleheader, which is set to happen at least once in Week 16, while George replaces McGrath as the sideline reporter on the Sean McDonough-Greg McElroy team.

Every other seat on ESPN’s rebuilt No. 2 team appears to be accounted for, except for Kelce. Whether the recently retired lineman and podcast host joins that rotation, and how often, remains to be seen.

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