New "Monday Night Football" AltCast to Arrive Later This Month Providing All the Analytics Sports Fans Could Want

Sports fans who love analytics will surely want to start tuning into a Monday Night Football altcast that is arriving later this month on various ESPN Platforms.

What’s Happening: 

• Fans will now have an additional, new way to watch the NFL on ESPN: MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats, ESPN’s first NFL analytics-powered presentation tailored for its most avid fans. 
• Designed for viewers who crave deeper insights, MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats will deliver real-time data, advanced metrics and analytics-driven commentary, powered by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and Adrenaline’s TruPlay AI for five of ESPN’s final six games of the 2025-26 season. 
• MNF Playbook kicks off in Week 16, on Monday, December 22nd, with Monday Night Football’s 49ers-Colts matchup (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2, ESPN App). 
• The data-enhanced telecast returns in Week 17, Week 18 (for one of ESPN’s doubleheader games) and for ESPN’s Wild Card and Divisional Round playoff game. 
• All five editions of MNF Playbook will be available for fans with a subscription to the ESPN Unlimited plan on the ESPN App with Week 16 and 17 also airing on ESPN2.
• ESPN’s latest alternate-telecast complements the traditional Monday Night Football telecast, with Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge, each week. 
• For Week 16, the regular voices of Monday Night Football can be found on ESPN, ABC, ESPN Deportes, ESPN App and Disney+.

  Monday, ESPN debuts 'MNF Playbook w/@NextGenStats' for 49ers-Colts
  
  🏈Predictive, analytics-driven #MNF alt-cast for avid #NFL fans
  🗓️5-editions; runs through ESPN Divisional Round game
  
  8p ET | ESPN2, ESPN App
  🎙️@LukeKuechly, @danorlovsky7, @FieldYates
  
  🔗https://t.co/ZakYPoI0Vh pic.twitter.com/pTLPTOVZU5

  — ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 17, 2025

• Fans will consume the game with a 22-man, all-field camera view, as MNF Playbook taps TruPlay AI’s unprecedented live predictive engine - capable of adjusting to personnel, formations and pre-snap movement in real time. With a database of more than 370,000 NFL plays layered with NFL Next Gen Stats, TruPlay AI equips the presentation with dynamic run-pass probabilities, expected target distributions, blitz likelihoods and more, giving fans a deeper, data-driven look at every moment of the game.
• In Week 16 and 17, Luke Kuechly - the former Carolina Panthers standout linebacker and seven-time Pro Bowler - will team up with ESPN NFL analysts Dan Orlovsky and Field Yates from ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, CT. 
• In the weeks that follow, a rotating roster of ESPN commentators, including Mike Monaco, Tim Hasselbeck and Chase Daniel, will join the booth. Together, this group of former NFL quarterbacks, a premier linebacker and seasoned analysts will bring fans an engaging, teachable, and dynamic breakdown of the game each week.
• Adding even more firepower to the telecast, either Brian Burke or Seth Walder will serve as the presentation’s analytics experts each week. As the show’s resident data experts, they’ll complement the analysis of the commentators by translating real-time probabilities and advanced metrics into clear, compelling insights - giving fans a smarter, deeper look at the action unfolding on the field.
• MNF Playbook is the latest installment of an alternate-telecast series surrounding Monday Night Football this season, joining Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli and Monsters Funday Football. As ESPN further commits to audience expansion and innovation, MNF Playbook builds off of ESPN’s success with Sunday Night Baseball: Statcast Edition and the NBA InsightCast. 

AltCasts on ESPN: 

• Altcasts on ESPN are alternate broadcasts of sporting events - secondary feeds that present a game or match from a different perspective, with unique commentary, camera angles, graphics, or storytelling approaches compared to the traditional broadcast
• While some are entirely in fun, like the recent Monsters Funday Football or other past altcasts like the NHL Big City Greens Classic, Toy Story Funday Football, and others, some take a deeper dive into their respective sport. 
• These versions, like MNF Playbook, highlight advanced statistics and performance data during the live action of the game. 
• This follows Sunday Night Baseball: Statcast Edition which focuses heavily on Statcast data, like pitch metrics, predictive tools, avatar replays, and deeper statistical visualizations.
• ESPN has also debuted other analytical formats, such as InsightCast for NBA playoff coverage, which incorporates tracking data, shot charts, and enhanced visuals to help fans understand the game on a deeper level.
• All of which are aimed at fans of the games who love analytics.