The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
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.
Episodes
We're one-third of the way through the NFL regular season, and we know a thing or two about each of the league's 32 teams. We know enough, in fact, to start separating the teams into distinct groups. That's right, it's team tiers time. Robert Mays and Dave Helman drop all 32 teams in one of five buckets—from Super Bowl or Bust to Mock Draft Enthusiasts—on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
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Indiana is the #3 team in the country. Yes, in football. And they aren't the only big surprise this season. Texas A&M, Missouri and Cincinnati all have paths to the Playoff, as well. We've discussed a handful of players from those teams through an NFL Draft lens, but it's not just Fernando Mendoza and Marcel Reed doing work for their respective teams. On this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast, Dane Brug...
The AFC North feels like one big, collective hangover this season, so it's no surprise that both games in the Week 6 Hangover feature teams from the division. All four AFC North teams were going to be in this show, but Browns-Steelers landed on the cutting room floor when the Titans made Brian Callahan the first coach fired this season. That's where Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen begin this episode of The Athletic Football Show. Af...
Remember that wild time three weeks ago when there were some simmering concerns about the Chiefs? Safe to say those have been put to bed after their convincing win over the Lions on Sunday night. That's where Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman begin the Week 6 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss Buccaneers and Seahawks grabbing our attention, the disgusting Broncos-Jets game in London, Rico D...
The last time the Lions played the Chiefs, they made clear that they had arrived as contenders. Two years later, they just might be the best team in the league. Lions-Chiefs is our first Game of the Week and where Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman kick off the Week 6 preview episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dig into 49ers-Buccaneers, Jaguars-Seahawks, Bears-Commanders and Bills-Falcons; take a ride ove...
Take a look at any wide receiver stat leaderboard for 2025, and you're going to see Puka Nacua, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jaxon Smith-Njigba at the top. For various reasons, those three aren't the types of receivers we're used to seeing at the top of the leaderboards. Is the receiver landscape shifting? Is this small sample size theater? Is it a little of both? Is there something else at work here? Robert Mays and Matt Harmon from Yaho...
We're just about halfway through the college football regular season, and boards for the 2026 NFL Draft look different than they did in August. How different? That's exactly what Dane Brugler and Dave Helman dive into on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast. With about two months of the season in the books, Dane offers up his top-three rankings for the 2026 NFL Draft at every position.
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For the first time since 2014, no NFL team made it to 5-0. The Bills nearly did it, but, instead, Sunday Night Football turned into a coming-out party for Drake Maye and the Patriots. How did the Patriots pull off the upset? Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dig in on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dive deep on the Lions dismantling of the Bengals and the Saints first win of the season, a 26-14 triumph over ...
Buccaneers-Seahawks was one of our Games of the Week in Week 5, and it absolutely delivered the goods. The Bucs may have come out of the game with a 38-35 win, but both teams further announced themselves as legitimate contenders in the NFC. That's where Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman start the Week 5 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dig into the Broncos win over the Eagles, the Patriots upset ...
We've turned the calendar to October and reached the bye-week portion of the schedule, which means that while it's still relatively early in the season, the "it's early" caveats are starting to fall by the wayside. So when we get Games of the Week like Seahawks-Buccaneers and Chargers-Commanders, it isn't a function of the schedule. It's because these are legitimately great matchups we can't wait to watch on Sunday. That's where Ro...
When a team goes out and brings in a new playcaller during the offseason, be it the head coach or offensive coordinator, they're telling us one thing: We need new ideas on offense. One-quarter of the league did that this offseason, and five of those teams have stood out for one reason or another over the first month of the season...the Patriots, Bears, Jaguars, Seahawks and Cowboys. What are the early returns on the new ideas for t...
College football's loaded weekend delivered with Oregon, Alabama and Mississippi picking up huge wins. Those games, not to mention the rest of the slate, reverberated across the NFL Draft world, as well. Dane Brugler and Dave Helman break it all down on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast. The guys also dive into Dane's All-Rookie Team through the first month of the NFL season.
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If ever there were a game that felt like a hangover, it was the Texans 26-0 win over the Titans in Week 4. That's where Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen kick off this episode of The Athletic Football Show. After that, the guys dive into another impressive performance by the Browns defense, albeit in a 34-10 loss to the Lions, and the Bills 31-19 win over the Saints. Robert and Derrik wrap up the episode by discussing all the injuries...
Allow us to take you behind the curtain. This was, by far, the hardest recap show for us to program thus far this season. That's how much happened in Week 4. From the Chiefs dismantling of the Ravens, to the Eagles taking down the Buccaneers, to huge wins for the Rams, Steelers and Jaguars, we had no shortage of topics to get into the show. Robert Mays, Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen do what they can to get their arms around a jam-...
If you looked at Week 4 before the season, you likely would've assumed that Ravens-Chiefs would be the Game of the Week, with Eagles-Buccaneeers at the top of the undercard. Instead, Eagles-Bucs has jumped up to top billing, the Colts and Rams find themselves in the Game of the Week, and the Ravens and Chiefs are both starting down 1-3 records. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman dive into all three of those games to kick o...
The Texans are 32nd in offensive success rate. The Broncos are 31st. The Raiders are 30th. The Falcons are 20th, but they just got shut out by the Panthers, fired their WRs coach, and moved their OC down to the field from the booth. Why can't these four offenses, all of which have good-to-great personnel on paper, get anything going? Robert Mays and Ted Nguyen dive deep on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
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This is the sort of week that makes college football fanatics and NFL Draft nuts the Predator meme. Saturday is absolutely loaded with games that are monumental on the college football landscape filled with players who will be playing on Sundays next year. From Oregon at Penn State and Alabama at Georgia, to LSU at Mississippi and Notre Dame at Arkansas, to Ohio State at Washington and USC at Illinois, we're going to see a lot of f...
The Chiefs are on the board, while the Vikings and Commanders both got easy wins with their backup quarterbacks at the helm. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen recap Chiefs-Giants, Bengals-Vikings and Raiders-Commanders on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also consider what Nick Bosa's season-ending ACL injury means for the 49ers and take sad voicemails from you, our dear listeners and viewers.
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The Bills, Eagles and Buccaneers are among the 3-0 teams in the NFL. No real surprises there, right? Well, so are the Chargers. So are the Colts! Oh, and the 49ers, too. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman kick off the Week 3 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show by talking about four of the teams that improved to 3-0 on Sunday. They also try to answer how Packers lost to the Browns, and the Falcons got shut out by th...
Any time the calendar says "September," it's still early in the NFL season. But as we get ready for Week 3, we're starting to know a thing or two about most teams across the league. One thing we would've known at any point, though? Rams-Eagles and Lions-Ravens is must-see TV. That's where Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman start the Week 3 preview episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dive into Cardinals-49e...
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