{
  "id": 1596411,
  "title": "Luke Kuechly reportedly replacing Bill Belichick on Peyton Manning’s ‘The Breakdown’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/luke-kuechly-reportedly-replacing-bill-belichick-on-peyton-mannings",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-18T00:15:09.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/luke-kuechly-reportedly-replacing-bill-001509178.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Bill Belichick recently exited the media scene, transitioning to coaching at North Carolina. This left a gap that Luke Kuechly, a respected former NFL linebacker, is now stepping into. According to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Kuechly will replace Belichick on ESPN's The Breakdown, a show where Manning and Belichick analyzed upcoming Monday Night Football games. Kuechly, who is also a radio analyst for the Carolina Panthers, is expected to join Manning on The Breakdown starting in October, just before ESPN's Super Bowl coverage. This comes after Kuechly's audition for NBC, where he and Noah Eagle, who is set to be Netflix's primary NFL play-by-play voice, showed immediate chemistry. Kuechly will also be calling some games for CBS. The Breakdown isn't slated to air during the 2025 NFL season, following Belichick's decision to turn his focus to coaching.",
  "summary": "Two years ago, Bill Belichick was the hottest commodity in NFL media circles, lining up a series of gigs in the short period between coaching stints. One of them was The Breakdown, an ESPN film-room series where he and Peyton Manning broke down the X’s and O’s of upcoming Monday Night Football games. This year,…",
  "key_points": [
    "Luke Kuechly replaces Bill Belichick on ESPN's The Breakdown.",
    "Kuechly joins Manning in October, before Super Bowl coverage.",
    "Kuechly also calls games for CBS after The Breakdown."
  ],
  "editors_take": "Luke Kuechly's addition to The Breakdown marks a changing of the guard as Peyton Manning gains a new co-analyst, replacing Bill Belichick, with Kuechly's expanded role across multiple networks.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}