Broadcast team for Lions-Jets ‘Monday Night Football’ season opener announced

With Jon Gruden accepting the head coaching job with the Oakland Raiders, Sean McDonough out of the broadcasting booth, and Chris Berman mostly retired, the “Monday Night Football” announcing team is going through some serious changes in 2018. On Thursday evening, ESPN finally announced the broadcasting teams for Week 1’s MNF doubleheader.

The Detroit Lions and New York Jets will start the early game, which typically features the “A Team” of ESPN announcers. They will get the combination of Beth Mowins on play-by-play and Brian Griese as the color analyst. Laura Rutledge will serves as the sideline reporter.

However, this team of broadcasters won’t be the regular ‘MNF’ crew for the rest of the season. That honor belongs to Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten and Lisa Salters, who will call the second half of the doubleheader: Raiders vs. Rams.

Last year, Mowins called the late game in ESPN’s MNF doubleheader, becoming the first woman to call a nationally-televised regular season NFL game. Her partner, Brian Griese, has been employed at ESPN since retiring after the 2008 season. Though he’s mostly served as a college football color analyst, he does have experience calling live NFL games with the Broncos’ local preseason team.

Lions-Jets will kick off from Ford Field at 7:10 p.m. ET on September 9.