Courtesy USA Today

(September 1, 2010) Who are the best NFL TV analysts working today? Mike Florio, the curator of ProFootballTalk.com (now affiliated with NBC Sports), analyzes some talking heads for USA TODAY:

TOP TIER

Troy Aikman (Fox): Understated but authoritative, Aikman quietly has become a great game analyst. Despite his Hall of Fame career and three Super Bowl wins with the Dallas Cowboys, he rarely forces his personal or team experiences into the discussion and consistently resists the "I/We" temptation that has doomed the broadcasting career of guys such as Joe Montana. Aikman also keeps it simple and realizes that folks watching the game don't comprehend it at the same level as the men who played and coached it.

Cris Collinsworth (NBC): A wall full of Emmys can't be wrong. He stepped into a potential minefield following John Madden on Sunday Night Football, but Collinsworth has continued to make it look — and sound — easy. His smooth delivery disguises an obsession with detail and preparation, and over time his on-air personality has become more like his off-air style — loose and relaxed, conveying that he's having a great time.

COVER STORY: For NFL TV talkers, crossing over from field no easy task

BEST OF THE REST

Rodney Harrison (NBC): He approaches his new career the same way he approached his old one, paying little regard for making friends. A polite — even shy — gentleman away from the set, he brings to the table the same tenacity that we saw on Sundays during his 15-year career. He'll get better and better with more time and reps.

Michael Irvin (NFL Network): He could be one of the best ... if he'd reel in some of his extreme opinions and avoid controversy. But, for the same reason players become great, that hint of recklessness in Irvin's personality improves him as an analyst.

Rich Gannon (CBS): The former NFL MVP continues to improve and could eventually be a top-shelf game analyst. He deserves to climb the ladder at CBS and, if paired with the best play-by-play talents, Gannon probably would rise to the occasion and become even better ... similar to his career track as a player.

Deion Sanders (NFL Network): Though he needs to tread lightly regarding his relationships with agents and amateur players, Sanders remains entertaining, engaging and informative. He enjoys the game, and he makes the viewer enjoy it, too. He'd have more credibility if he'd dump the "pay the man" shtick and focus more on celebrating good performances as something other than leverage for more lucrative contracts for the men he dissects.

Boomer Esiason (CBS): Often underrated and unappreciated as a player, Esiason doesn't get the credit he deserves as a Sunday studio analyst and Monday night game analyst on radio, either. He's got no agenda or bias other than to do his job and communicate quality information. Years after his stint in the Monday Night Football booth ended in perceived failure, Esiason has talents that need to again be put to use in a TV broadcast both.

NEEDS WORK

Jon Gruden (ESPN): His made-for-TV forays back into coaching — remember his work with Tim Tebow and Co. in the spring before the draft? — are sufficiently compelling to make even more glaring his reluctance to bring that snarling, fiery persona to his primary on-air job. He won't; he wants to avoid alienating players and coaches with whom he might be working in the future. Once he gets out of coaching for good, Gruden could instantly become his generation's Madden.

Cris Carter (ESPN): Occasionally abrasive and brusque, Carter will be in jeopardy once another high-profile player with the chops to talk on television is looking for a job. Like many players-turned-broadcasters, he's facing a window within which to become indispensable. Carter has yet to bring anything to the table that makes him a must-have fixture on Sunday mornings and as a result he could soon be bumped into the weekday rotation on ESPN.

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