Let's show Greg Olsen some love

[PanthersATL]

The voting results are in, with 50,000 votes counted

#1:  Joe Davis, Greg Olsen (Fox): 3.40

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Most common grade: A (63.9 percent of votes)
Percentage of A/B/C grades: 93.0 percent

The good news for Fox is that, for the first time in the six times we’ve done these rankings, they have a team at the top. The bad news for them is that it’s not their “A” team, or the team that will be calling Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans in just over a month. Instead, it’s the analyst in Olsen they demoted to make way for Tom Brady on that “A” team (which finished 14th of 25 teams here) in his new partnership on the No. 2 team with Davis.

Olsen was on the fourth-ranked of 17 teams last year with Kevin Burkhardt, receiving a 3.26, while Davis was seventh with Daryl Johnston, receiving a 2.74. So this partnership has seen notable rises for both. And they received more than triple the A votes (1428) as Bs (472, their second-most-common grade) and only 52 Fs.

In the comments, many people noted their opposition to Fox’s decision to bump down Olsen to bring in Brady. Some of those responses included “Greg deserves to be the top guy,” “The difference in quality between Olsen and Brady is stark,” “Greg Olsen never should have been demoted,” and “The true A-Team on Fox.”

There was also a lot of praise for Olsen beyond that, including “Olsen is the best color guy out there today,” “I’ve learned more about football from Greg Olsen in the last two years than ever before,” and “hands down best announcer across all.” And some liked Olsen much more than Davis, including “Davis is a drag on Olsen” and “Olsen A, Davis F” (on a C grade), with Davis also taking hits like “THE WORST play-by-play guy since Brent Musburger.” But Olsen also drew a few critical comments, including “overrated,” “grating,” and “overly biased on most games,” while Davis got some individual praise such as “absolute peak” and “Davis is the Vin Scully of football games.” (The legendary Scully did have quite a notable football broadcasting career himself, but the point’s taken; beyond his Dodgers’ work, Davis’ style on both baseball and football definitely bears some resemblance to Scully’s.)

The comments here were highly positive overall, as you’d expect for the top booth in these rankings. Here are some of those:

“The best duo hands down.”
“Amazing combo.”
“The best overall booth there is.”
“Best crew as far as giving pure, honest analysis behind every play.”
“This team is the best at calling the actual game! They don’t get sidetracked with outside subjects like almost all the others.”
“Best pair on sports TV.”
Congratulations to Davis, Olsen, and Fox on the No. 1 ranking in this season’s poll. And thank you to everyone who voted and commented!

https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/2024-rankings-announcing-teams-olsen-davis-buck-aikman-brady.html