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.
Through five weeks of the 2026 NFL season, two teams sit at 5-0. One of those teams, the San Francisco 49ers, got there with one of the wins of the season thus far, a 32-
Oct 12 1 h 47 min
Week 5 Preview: The first 49ers-Seahawks tilt of the season highlights the slate
The last time the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks played one another, home-field advantage on the NFC side of the bracket in last season's playoffs was on the li
Oct 9 1 h 22 min
Buccaneers shock Cowboys in Dallas, 24-16
The NFL world spent much of this past week anointing the Dallas Cowboys as the clear favorite in the NFC East after rough couple of days for the Philadelphia Eagles. Welp
Oct 9 32 min
The most surprising developments in the season's first month
We know the first month of the NFL season is going to surprise us, but we can't be sure exactly what those surprises are going to be. After all, if we knew what they were
Oct 8 1 h 19 min
Building the Beast: Austin Simmons and C.J. Carr get their turn in the QB Corner
We've spent most of our time this season with the loaded quarterback class focused on Arch Manning or Dante Moore or Drew Mestemaker. Three quarterbacks does not a loaded
Oct 7 1 h 00 min
Week 4 Hangover: Bryce Young's big night, the Chargers season gets worse, and the Giants move into first place
Through four weeks, Bryce Young leads the NFL in passing yards and ranks seventh in EPA/dropback, sandwiched between Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes. Of course he does. Ro
Oct 6 55 min
Falcons stomp Saints behind dominant run game, 45-24
A strong outing from Michael Penix, a suffocating run game from Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr, and a Jeff Ulbrich classic. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Hel
Oct 6 28 min
Week 4 Recap: Chiefs and 49ers Remain unbeated, Jaguars win ugly, CeeDee Lamb goes off
As we wrap up the first month of the NFL season, we still have three undefeated teams across the league, and none of them would've been among the most likely candidates i
Oct 5 1 h 41 min
Week 4 Preview: The Raiders are in our Game of the Week!
Broncos-49ers is one of our Games of the Week for Week 4. Which, sure, duh, that was easy to see coming before the season began. The other one, and the one getting top bi
Oct 2 1 h 28 min
Browns move to 3-1 with 27-24 win over Steelers
A back-and-forth night in Cleveland ended up in an unlikely spot...with the home team sitting at 3-1 on the first night of October. The Cleveland Browns knocked off the P
Oct 2 27 min
What Trevor Lawrence's rise can teach us about NFL quarterbacks
Accompanied reading: Sando's 2026 quarterback tiers https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/interactive/nfl-quarterback-tiers-insider-rankings-2026/
Trevor Lawrence was the mos
Oct 1 59 min
Week 3 Hangover: Brian Flores is a menace, Mason Graham comes alive, and the Giants win ugly
An absolutely jam-packed Week 3 Sunday recap means we're back to our Hangover roots. Vikings over Bucs in a game where neither offense reached a 25% success rate? Hell ye
Sep 29 53 min
Bears, Case Keenum cruise past Eagles in 27-7 victory
No Caleb Williams, no problem. At least for one week. The Chicago Bears turned to third-string quarterback Case Keenum and he helped deliver them a 27-7 win over the Phil
Sep 29 33 min
Week 3 Recap: Broncos stun Rams, Ravens upend Cowboys, Jaguars roll Patriots, and the 3-0 Raiders
We've got 15 more regular season weeks ahead of us, but it wouldn't be a surprise if we just saw what goes down as the best one in Week 3. We had 12 one-score games (two
Sep 28 1 h 51 min
Week 3 Preview
The Ravens, Cowboys, Rams and Broncos all began this year at our Contender's Table. They're all now 1-1, but we aren't too worried about any of them just yet. And hey, th
Sep 25 1 h 26 min
Falcons run all over Packers for first win of season
Time to add the Packers to the list of teams ready to hit the panic button before we even turn the calendar to October. The Falcons, meanwhile, finally had a nice day at
Sep 25 33 min
Is This Real?
**Game Show Audience Voice** IS...THIS...REAL?!? That's right, it's time for one of our favorite annual traditions, a round of Is This Real? with Robert Mays and Bill Bar
Sep 24 57 min
Building the Beast: Trinidad Chambliss is climbing the boards
Over the weekend, LSU got - as the kids say - cooked by Trinidad Chambliss. The Ole Miss quarterback burst onto the scene last season and it looks like he has no intentio
Sep 23 56 min
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
Chart trend
Position in the Football chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#7#12JulAugSepOct
#4
all-time peak
246
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, Oct 12, 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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Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL, its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.
