The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

We've talked a lot in recent weeks about how every NFL season is going to throw us its fair share of curveballs. There are constants, however, and one of the most constant of the constants is Bills-Chiefs Game of the Week. That's where Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman begin the Week 9 preview episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys give the "One Thing From..." treatment to Falco...

Even a casual NFL fan can tell which quarterbacks, running backs and receivers are among the best in the league. It takes a more discerning eye to watch the tape and understand who's winning in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball. Brandon Thron brings just such an eye to this episode of The Athletic Football Show, where he and Robert Mays dive deep on the offensive line to identify whic...

We're just about halfway through the NFL season, which means that we know a thing or two—maybe not more, but definitely a thing or two—about this year's rookie class. With that in mind, Dave Helman welcomes Trevor Sikkema from Pro Football Focus to this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast to name this season's first half All-Rookie Team. Rundown (timestamps are approximate)...

It's safe to say that the first half of the 2025 season hasn't gone exactly as the Ravens or Texans drew it up. Yet after big wins for both teams in Week 8, they remain firmly in the mix as we turn toward November. The Buccaneers, meanwhile, are putting real distance between themselves and the rest of the NFC South, despite all their injuries. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dig into Bears-Ravens,...

What does a football show have to do to get an exciting Sunday around here? Despite the slate of blowouts and correct predictions, some wins were more legit than others. Is the Philadelphia Eagles offense for real or did they just play a hobbled opponent? Does the Baltimore Ravens win say more about their playoff chances or about the Chicago Bears flaws? And did the Dallas Cowboys loss to the Denv...

Cowboys-Broncos? Packers-Steelers? Browns-Patriots and Giants-Eagles and Panthers-Bills? Sure, those games might not have jumped out at us back in August, but they combine to make Week 8 one of the more compelling slates we've had all season. At least as we sit here previewing them. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman get you ready for Week 8 on this episode of The Athletic Football Show....

Sixty-yard field goals! Landing zones! The K ball! The kicking game seemingly has never played a bigger role in the NFL than it is this season. The Athletic national NFL writers Jourdan Rodrigue and Mike Sando join Robert Mays to dive into The Year of the Kicker in the NFL, how we got to this point, and the effects the rule changes are having on the league on this episode of The Athletic Football...

As we get to the final Saturday in October, certain elements of what will be come the 2026 NFL Draft picture are at least approaching a degree of focus. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, for example, is certainly climbing up the quarterback ranks. Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love is cementing himself as RB1. Jordyn Tyson and Chris Bell are leading a deep group of top-50 wide receivers. Dane Br...

The 49ers mash unit defense showed up in a big way against the Falcons. The Chiefs got Rashee Rice back in Week 7, and had one of their best offensive days of the season. Drake Maye and the Patriots took care of business against an inferior Titans team and are now 5-2 on the season. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dive into those three games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. Plus, the...

When we previewed Week 7, we made Colts/Chargers and Rams/Jaguars audition for a Game of the Week spot. Neither of those lived up to the billing, thanks to the dominant performances by the Colts and Rams in their respective wins. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman wonder whose performance was more impressive in the Week 7 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dig into...

Every mini-era of the NFL gives us a handful of short-term rivalries that are the result of teams from different divisions running into one another for a couple years in a row. Buccaneers-Lions is turning into one such rivalry. And hey, given the way they're both playing, this might not be the last time we see them go up against one another this season. Robert Mays, Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen...

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...

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 S...

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 episod...

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...

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...

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? Ro...

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...

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 o...

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 o...

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...

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 e...

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...

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 epi...

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...