The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

We're just two weeks away from the end of the regular season, and exactly one team that won its division last year is in first place this year. That would be the Philadelphia Eagles, who clinched the NFC East with a win over the Washington Commanders on Saturday. Every other division, however, is looking quite possibly at a new division winner. That includes the Chicago Bears, who took firm control of the NFC North with a win over ...

Jaguars-Broncos is the Game of the Week. Patriots-Ravens is another game of the week, and it's the former that is leading its division as the latter fights for its playoff life. The defining characteristic of this NFL season—true contender turnover in largely unseen quantities—steps to the fore in Week 16. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman give it the full preview treatment on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

Every NFL season brings us some sort of advance in analytics and schematics, and spending some time every December looking back at this season's developments is one of our favorite things to do before we turn the page to the playoffs. Sam Schwartzstein, Amazon Prime's analytics expert, joins Robert Mays on this episode of The Athletic Football Show to dive deep on this season's analytic and schematic trends, and preview the monster...

The College Football Playoffs kick off this week, and while the results on the field will understandably dominate the discussion around the games, it's the performances of the NFL Draft prospects that we care about most here at The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast. Dane Brugler and Dave Helman dive into the draft-eligible players you need to be watching when you've got the CFP games on this weekend. Before that, the guys...

We all realize that the 49ers have 10 wins and are a near-lock for the playoffs, right? Has a double-digit-win season ever gone more overlooked? And how dangerous might the Niners be, assuming they do get into the playoffs? Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen discuss that on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dig into Ravens-Bengals and Vikings-Cowboys from Week 15, and take a couple of sad voicemails from the fan...

One of the big stories of the 2025 season is the rise of new contenders and the fall of the traditional powers. We saw the former on Sunday, with the Denver Broncos winning their 11th straight game, this time taking down the mighty Green Bay Packers. We saw the latter, as well, with the Kansas City Chiefs being officially eliminated from playoff contention after a 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And we also saw a team defy ...

In this particuarly topsy-turvy season, there's perhaps nothing stranger than seeing the Broncos and Patriots on top of the AFC. Both of them in Week 15 have massive opportunities to prove they're not just great regular season stories, but legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman kick off the Week 15 preview episode of The Athletic Football Show by diving deep on Bills-Patriots and Packers-Bronc...

The teams heading to the playoffs and putting themselves in the Super Bowl discussion are, understandably, in the NFL spotlight right now. Before long, however, the teams at the opposite end of the spectrum will steal that spotlight for a couple of days when they hire their new head coaches. Robert Mays and Conor Orr from Sports Illustrated and The MMQB get you ready for those couple of days on this episode of The Athletic Football...

College Football Playoff controversy? What College Football Playoff controversy? You won't find any of that here on this episode of Building the Beast. What you will find, though, is Dane Brugler and Dave Helman digging into how the conference championship games and College Football Playoff field helped shape the state of the 2026 NFL Draft conversation as we approach the end of the year.

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The Vikings, Commanders, Titans and Browns have dealt with varying degrees of disappointment this season, but they remain worthy of our attention as we get ready to close the book on them for 2025. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dive into the Vikings' 31-0 win over the Commanders, and the Titans' surprisingly fun 31-29 win over the Browns, on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. Then, the guys get into a particularly illustr...

If you caught the Week 14 preview episode of The Athletic Football Show, you know we were excited about this Sunday. Bears-Packers, Colts-Jaguars, Texans-Chiefs, Steelers-Ravens and Bengals-Bills. Welp, the day lived up to the expectations, and the some. Robert Mays, Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen dive deep into an awesome day of football—and consider its implications—on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

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It’s a ton of fun anytime you get a game with first place on the line this late in the season. This week, we have three such games. And one of them is Bears-Packers. So yeah, Week 14 just might be the best week of the season. Robert Mays, Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen preview everything we’ve got to come this week on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

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Chiefs, Ravens, Eagles and Lions; Chiefs, Ravens, Eagles and Lions. Look back over the last half-decade of the NFL, and you'll see those four teams at the top of the league, year in and year out. They're all such constants, in fact, that it seems we just chisel their names in stone into the playoff picture in August. But this year, the Eagles are sputtering their way into December, and the Chiefs, Ravens and Lions all could easily ...

It's December. The college football regular season is over. It's Mock Draft Season. Dane Brugler's end-of-season mock draft is now live at The Athletic, and he and Dave Helman dig into it on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

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It doesn't always have to be pretty, especially when you're stacking wins. The Broncos and Buccaneers can tell themselves that after picking up victories over the Commanders and Cardinals, respectively, in Week 13. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dig into both of those games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. Then, they do some necessary due diligence and check in on the Saints and Dolphins. Finally, the guys wrap up the...

December has arrived, and there isn't much more separation among teams at the top of their divisions as there was back when everyone was 0-0. Three divisions—the NFC West, AFC South and AFC North—are tied. Two more—the NFC North and NFC South—have a half-game separating the top-two teams. The Cowboys now trail the Eagles by just 1.5 games in the NFC East. We're going to enjoy one helluva run to the playoffs over the next month. Rob...

With Thanksgiving Day now behind us, it's time to get to the rest of the Week 13 slate. Believe it or not, the AFC South is still very much up for grabs, and the Texans have an opportunity for a huge win when they visit the Colts on Sunday. The Bills and Steelers, meanwhile, are both coming off a loss and meet in a game that feels like neither can afford to lose. The 49ers, Jaguars, Buccaneers and Chargers are all comfortable favor...

If you've been a football fan for any meaningful amount of time, you know that great games on the Thanksgiving Day slate isn't a guarantee. That's what makes a Thanksgiving like this one so delightfully juicy. Packers-Lions! Chiefs-Cowboys! Bengals-Ravens, with Joe Burrow back! And then, to top it all off, Bears-Eagles on Black Friday. That's just about as good a set of games as you could hope for to kick off Thanksgiving weekend. ...

Rivalry Week always has, and always will, mean so many things in the college football world. One of the newer elements of Rivalry Week, though, is that it's often the last time any NFL Draft prospects whose teams don't make the College Football Playoff will put something new on tape for pro teams to consider. It's on those players that Dane Brugler and Dave Helman focus their attention on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.