NFL Network’s plan for Dolphins-Chiefs, and analysts weigh in. And NBA media changes loom

NFL Network sometimes “borrows” announcers from other networks to call games, and that’s the case this weekend when ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky joins Jason McCourty and NFL Network play-by-play man Rich Eisen on the call of the Dolphins-Chiefs game at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

McCourty, who played for the Dolphins late in his career, is a regular on NFL Network’s morning show and also is calling some NFL and college games for CBS this season.

Orlovsky also likely will call the Dolphins-Titans Monday night game on ESPN on Dec. 11, with Chris Fowler and Louis Riddick.

The ABC/ESPN lead team, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, are expected to work the simultaneous Giants-Packers game on ABC that night.

Orlovsky, on Twitter, offered a tribute to Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel after the NFL Network crew met with him on Friday:

“Dolphins, your head coach is an absolute stud,” Orlovsky said. “We left being with Mike for about an hour. I never spent time with him. Going into that, I knew he was really smart, really good X’s and O’s and football wise and scheme wise. Walking out of it, as impressive as he is on that stuff, more impressed with his understanding of [coaching].

“I don’t know if I ever heard a coach talk the way he talks, about his role as head coach of this team. To hear him talk about the responsibility he feels and embraces and the obsession about it and appreciation for it. It’s rare in the NFL to hear a coach talk like this. It should be celebrated. Of all the coaches I’ve come across, I’ve played for a bunch, I don’t know if I have ever heard a guy talk about the role of coaching in the NFL the way Mike McDaniel did. It was unbelievable, one of the cooler experiences I had in the game of football.”

NBC 6 acquired Miami-Fort Lauderdale television rights to simulcast NFL Network’s coverage of the game. The NFL does not permit a TV station in Palm Beach County to air the game.

ANALYSTS WEIGH IN

Five network analysts weighed in on Sunday’s Dolphins-Chief game:

1). ESPN’s Bart Scott, who picks the Dolphins: “Jalen Ramsey looks like his old self. This defense is going to be playing at a high level now that Jaelan Phillips is providing a lot of pressure. I don’t think [the Chiefs] are going to get it done. They’ve got a lot to figure out in Kansas City.”

2). ESPN’s Chris Canty: “The worst thing that could happen to the Miami Dolphins was the Denver Broncos beating Kansas City in Week 8, because Pat Mahomes just doesn’t lose back to back games. It has happened three times in his career. The last time it happened was Weeks 2 and 3 of 2021. That’s how far back you’ve got to go! Pat Mahomes is usually money on situations when his team is trying to bounce back. That will be the case in Germany.”

3). ESPN’s Marcus Spears said the Broncos exposed areas of Kansas City’s defense that Tyreek Hill might be able to seize on.

“Last week against Denver, as good as the Chiefs defense has been playing, there were a couple opportunities in that zone that Russell Wilson was able to take advantage of,” Spears said. “Those [Dolphins] explosive plays, especially in those zones, and when you give them opportunities to run away from man coverage, that’s one of the issues [the Chiefs] may face.”

4). ESPN’s Ryan Clark, who picks the Dolphins: “The Chiefs have been great in two high safety zone blitzes. Can they rush the passer with four and stop the run with seven? If you can do those things, you allow [Chiefs defensive coordinator] Steve Spagnuolo to use this gifted, very intelligent back end to give Tua Tagovailoa something to look at post snap.

“What we’ve seen in two games they lost, to the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles, is [those teams] didn’t allow the [Dolphins’] run game to get going. And they didn’t let Tua to get to his first read. That’s the only way to have success against Mike McDaniel’s offense.”

5). ESPN’s Damien Woody: “I go with the Chiefs. Their defense has been playing lights-out football. They got beat down by the Broncos; they’re going to want to get back on track in a big way. I trust the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes more than I trust the Dolphins.”

AROUND THE DIAL

▪ There’s no Dolphins game that looks like a possibility for flex scheduling until the Dec. 31 game at Baltimore. The Jan. 7 finale against Buffalo also could be in play for NBC that night or for ESPN’s two Saturday, Jan. 6 slots.

Fox will keep the Dolphins-Cowboys game on Dec. 24; there’s no NBC game that night. NFL Network has an unappealing Patriots-Broncos game on Christmas Eve.

Minnesota-Denver on Nov. 19 appears to be the NBC Sunday night game that’s most at risk of being flexed out of prime time.

▪ After undergoing 35 radiation treatments for vocal-cord cancer, ESPN’s Dick Vitale has been cleared to return to broadcasting and will make his season debut calling UM at Kentucky on the Tuesday night after Thanksgiving.

▪ The NBA’s media deals expire after the 2024-25 season and negotiations should intensify with ABC/ESPN and Turner (Warner Brothers Discovery) in the weeks and months ahead; their exclusive negotiating period ends in April.

The Wall Street Journal reported that ABC/ESPN and TNT have interest in renewing their deals but with fewer games. A streaming service (perhaps two) might acquire a package of games. Amazon is a possibility, and Netflix’s CEO recently raised the possibility of pursuing an NBA package.

CBS has said it doesn’t have the programming hours to air NBA, with its heavy golf and college basketball schedules. NBC hasn’t publicly ruled out an NBA pursuit.

The NBA reportedly wants more games on over-the-air television in its next deal. Because of the ongoing writers strike, ABC will air NBA games on five Wednesdays in January. With the addition of those games, ABC is now scheduled to air 23 NBA telecasts, which is the most NBA games on broadcast television since NBC had rights in 2001-02.

With the Bally Sports regionals (and parent company Diamond Sports) facing precarious futures, the question remains whether the NBA, MLB and the NHL will pair with a streaming service (perhaps Amazon or ESPN) to distribute games in local markets. That must play out over the next year or two. ESPN intends to create a direct-to- consumer product, potentially for all of its programming, in the coming years.

Bally Sports Arizona shuttered last month. Bally Sports Sun and Bally Sports Florida appear likely to remain on the air in the coming months, but the long-term future of all of the Bally regionals is in question.

▪ One of the more compelling moments in sports TV in recent weeks occurred before TNT aired the Denver-Lakers season opener. Charles Barkley brushed off a call to go to commercial break by saying he had a ‘serious’ question for NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

“There’s a couple of disturbing incidents of domestic violence in the NBA right now,” Barkley said. “What are we doing to address that? You can’t put your hands on women. We should be at the forefront of sports when men hit women. What are we as a league going to do?”

Silver seemed caught off guard at first, saying “that’s an area where we are not looking to compete against other leagues.” He said “we put in place a new program for how we deal with accusations.. We have state of the art counseling professionals dealing with our players, but of course if a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous.”

Charlotte’s Miles Bridges and former Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. are two prominent players who have been arrested on charges involving domestic violence.

Good for Barkley for raising that issue. By all accounts, Silver did not know the question was coming, nor did TNT’s producer or director.

▪ ESPN added former NBA players Austin Rivers and Andre Iguodala and ex-Knicks general manager Scott Perry as studio analysts.

▪ The Heat won’t have another national TV game until the day after Thanksgiving at the Knicks. That will be one of the best South Florida sports TV days of the year, with UM playing at Boston College on ABC at noon and the Dolphins playing at the Jets on Amazon (and CBS-4 locally) at 3 p.m.

▪ Here are this week’s NFL maps and the college football TV schedule. Incidentally, YouTube this week insisted it has fixed the buffering issues that plagued NFL Sunday Ticket last weekend.