For years, Stephen A. Smith has been the face of ESPN, boasting the biggest contract, the biggest platform, and the biggest presence. But that might not be the case for much longer.

Per sources who spoke to The Athletic's Andrew Marchand, ESPN and analyst Pat McAfee are deep in talks on a new contract worth somewhere between $60 and $65 million a year. Nobody at ESPN has ever been paid that kind of money before.

Smith is sitting at around $30 million a year across everything he does at the network right now. McAfee at $60 million plus is not just more; it is a completely different conversation.

Per The Athletic, 39-year-old McAfee still has two years left on his current deal worth close to $30 million a year, which covers everything he does.

The analyst hosts a three-hour daily show with the first two hours on ESPN and all three on YouTube. He also appears regularly on College GameDay panel, alongside Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, and Rece Davis.

Unlike last time, when McAfee negotiated his ESPN deal himself, McAfee has WME agents, Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, negotiate on his behalf. According to The Athletic, they opened negotiations with ESPN at a whopping $100 million per year.

The two sides are now working somewhere in the $60 to $65 million range. The deal is not done yet. But the direction is clear.

In early 2025, Stephen A. Smith signed his current deal, a five-year, $100 million-plus contract that also lets him cover politics. At the time, that felt like the biggest deal in sports media. But McAfee's number changes the whole conversation.

To put it in perspective, Tom Brady signed a 10-year deal with Fox worth $37.5 million a year to call NFL games. McAfee at $60 million would blow past that number and leave everyone else in the dust.

McAfee Has Not Had An Easy Road At ESPN

Pat McAfee's journey at ESPN has not been a smooth ride. He has been involved in a number of controversies over the years, which affected not just him but also other personalities in the industry.

Aaron Rodgers, a frequent guest on his show, made false accusations about Jimmy Kimmel on air in 2024. In July 2025, McAfee publicly apologized for amplifying unfounded rumors about an 18-year-old college student.

NFL insider Adam Schefter was also essentially banned from the show for three months after McAfee felt the insider had not shown up when asked. Schefter eventually returned and has been a regular since.

Despite all of it, ESPN kept backing him. Their internal research shows McAfee is among the most popular personalities on the network with younger audiences.

In May, they reported a 25 percent viewership increase for McAfee year over year, averaging 421,000 viewers across linear and digital platforms.

The viewership stats explain ESPN's willingness to splurge on the veteran sports analyst's deal.

What do you think about Pat McAfee potentially becoming ESPN's highest-paid personality? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Farheen Fathima

Edited by

Arundhoti Palit