The Athletic’s flagship NFL podcast covers the league like only The Athletic can. Host Robert Mays and co-hosts Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman dive into the biggest stories, break down the Xs and Os, and tackle the ins and outs of roster building. They meticulously follow the details of why we all love this sport and have plenty of fun along the way, bringing the expertise necessary to cover the NFL at the highest level. You want year-round draft coverage? You'll get that here, too, with draft expert Dane Brugler. Whether it’s happening on the field or behind the scenes, you’ll get an in-depth look at all things NFL on The Athletic Football Show, available wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
Week 2 Hangover: The Chiefs are back, the Seahawks look dominant, and the Steelers are sad
The Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts saved an otherwise strange Sunday across the NFL with their overtime thriller on Sunday Night Football. That's where Robert
Sep 22 1 h 01 min
MNF Recap: Rams get right over Dart-less Giants
Week 2 was a stark departure from Week 1 for a number of teams, so it was fitting that the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants put a bow on the week in the way that they
Sep 22 28 min
Week 2 Recap: Bengals, Saints, Broncos score big wins on weird Sunday
#14 trending · Sports
Need more proof that the NFL is a week-to-week league? Well, after tying the record for most points scored in Week 1 to kick off the season, scoring came all the way back
Sep 21 1 h 39 min
Week 2 Preview
All it takes is one week of regular season football to get us back in the swing of things. And that means that the traditional weekly previews are back. We've got Bengals
Sep 18 1 h 26 min
Bills cruise to big win over Lions behind Josh Allen magic
Another week, another huge Josh Allen game. What's new, right? The Buffalo Bills raced out to an early lead on Thursday night behind Allen and never looked back, coasting
Sep 18 29 min
First impressions of the teams that FLOPPED in Week 1
Accompanied reading: Sando on special teams https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7578843/2026/09/10/rams-special-teams-sean-mcvay-packers/
Week 1 did not exactly go accordin
Sep 17 1 h 02 min
Building the Beast: Drew Mestemaker back on the NFL Draft radar after Oregon upset
Week 2 of the college football season gave us a pair of great quarterback matchups, with Drew Mestemaker and Dante Moore sharing a field in Eugene, and Arch Manning and J
Sep 16 59 min
Week 1 Hangover: Impressive 2026 debuts for the Ravens, Jets and Raiders
We all know Sundays are jam-packed. They're so busy, in fact, that we can't possibly cover every game from the day in our Sunday night recap show. And that's why The Hang
Sep 15 1 h 18 min
Chiefs dominate Broncos behind big night from Kenneth Walker
The Denver Broncos flipped the script on the Kansas City Chiefs last year, ending the latter's reign atop the AFC West and coming within one win of the Super Bowl. We're
With all due respect to the first two games of this season, the NFL is truly back when we get our first full Sunday of action. We just put a bow on that, and we are oh so
Sep 14 1 h 23 min
49ers manhandle Rams on Thursday Night Football
All the offseason narrative goes out the window the moment the actual games start, as the Rams learned the hard way on Thursday. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helm
Sep 11 31 min
Week 1 Preview
The 2026 NFL season is just getting underway. We've got plenty of time for in-depth breakdowns and thoughtful analysis on the most intriguing matchups a Sunday has to off
Sep 10 43 min
Recap: Seahawks beat Patriots in season opener
Well, that's not exactly how the Seattle Seahawks drew up the start of their Super Bowl title defense. It's not exactly a portent of good things to come when your startin
Sep 10 29 min
Predictions and award picks for the 2026 NFL season
Labor Day is behind us. The summer is effectively over. Over these last few months, we parsed every move made in free agency, broke down the NFL Draft, and pushed through
Sep 9 1 h 21 min
Building the Beast: Darian Mensah and Trinidad Chambliss put down NFL Draft markers in Week 1
Week 1 of the college football season is in the books, and we've already got 2027 NFL Draft prospects putting important moments on tape. Dave Helman and Dane Brugler jump
Sep 8 49 min
The 2026 TAFS Wins Pool Draft
Most competitions are about winning. Some, however, are about not losing. This is one of the latter. That's right, it's time for the 2026 TAFS Wins Pool Draft. Come in fi
Sep 7 1 h 01 min
2026 NFC West preview
We have done it. We've reached the end of the line. The eighth and final divison preview is here, and it is the loaded NFC West. Is it possible for the Rams to have a suc
Sep 4 1 h 52 min
2026 NFC North preview
The NFC North could very well be the deepest division in football. At the same time, there might not be an inner-circle Super Bowl contender among the four teams in the d
Sep 3 1 h 54 min
2026 AFC South preview
Once the butt of jokes across the league, the AFC South produced two teams that won at least 12 games last year, and for a time looked like it could get three teams into
Sep 2 1 h 52 min
2026 AFC East preview
The New England Patriots stopped the Buffalo Bills' streak of AFC East titles at six last year, then ran right through the AFC side of the playoff bracket to reach Super
Sep 1 1 h 49 min
Chart trend
Position in the Football chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#7#12JunJulAugSep
#4
all-time peak
227
days in the top 10 since Nov 2024
Chart positions
Where The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 22, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
For the love of God, spike the intros and outros. It’s not local sports talk radio in 1998. We don’t need you to tell us what you’re going to talk about as a separate recording … and then do it again as a part of the main recording … before getting to the actual discussion. This is show building 101. Please respect your listeners’ time!
DeMaragorn · Aug 2026
It’s the only show I’ve found that seamlessly weaves the XOs with the salary cap and all of the other nuanced aspects while avoiding hot takes and the normal garbage generalities. Not a fan of Helman though. He is cut from the ESPN bs narrative cloth.
Peter 5371947 · Jun 2026
The audio-only feed has been glitchy for months. Unable to skip, pause, or do anything when it starts playing. Then you have to restart the podcasts app and hope it works the next time. Not the hosts’ fault but none of this would be an issue if the Athletic didn’t put ads on its podcasts in its own app even for paying subscribers, and if the podcast interface in the Athletic app weren’t even more buggy in its own right.
LDYanks85 · Jun 2026
Overall the content is great, and I’ve been an avid listener since the beginning of the show.
Please teach Derrik Klassen how to pronounce names like DeVonta (AY not UH) Smith, Dont’a (AY not UH) Hightower, Kyle (HYOO not JOO) Juszczyk, among others.
Nate Tice had his pronunciation issues, but they were acknowledged and corrected in a fun way. Since Derrik joined, the mistakes go unchecked.
Hearing Robert Mays and Dave Helman pronounce names correctly and then hearing consistent mispronunciations from Derrik can be distracting.
PS: Monken rhymes with “sunken”, not “honkin”, and Pocic is pronounced “Po-sick”, not “Po-sich”.
Keep up the great work. I know these are nitpicks, but attention to detail with player names genuinely elevate the show even more.
BallCoach5 · May 2026
It’s abundantly clear the damage this sport does to the people who play it, many not even making it to a professional level in order to offset the cost of their needed healthcare after ruining their bodies and brains for your entertainment. There’s no safe way to play tackle football. Ban it now.
Please I’m Begging You · May 2026
The show is great, but the issues with the audio feed are making it unlistenable. Stops playing for no reason. Can’t skip to sections when the feed crashes out. Downloads constantly mangled. Whatever changed a month or two back, please go fix it. This is ONLY podcast i listen to with these issues
mavictorpinho · Jun 2026
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