Tonight’s Thursday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders will be on Amazon Prime. Kickoff will be at 8:15 p.m. ET, and the pregame show starts at 7 p.m ET. Who will be announcing the Week 5 matchup?
From the current NFL standings to team depth charts to coverage of every game in the 18-week NFL schedule, we have all the news from around the league to keep you up to speed!
Who Will Be Announcing the Bears-Commanders Broadcast Tonight?
Al Michaels will be doing play-by-play, with Kirk Herbstreit providing analysis and Kaylee Hartung reporting from the sidelines.
Charissa Thompson hosts the pregame show that features former NFL players Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth, and Tony Gonzalez.
MORE: NFL Coverage Map Week 5
Fitzpatrick played his 166th and final career game with the Commanders. He has played for nine franchises in 17 seasons from 2004 to 2021.
Amazon Prime is your only option to watch the game, except if you live in Washington or Chicago, where the game will be available on a local broadcast network.
Kirk Herbstreit Travels a Lot for Football
Herbstreit has called NFL games in addition to college football games for the last four seasons. He called a couple of games in each of the 2020 and 2021 seasons for ESPN and joined Al Michaels in the Amazon Prime Thursday Night booth last year.
Herbstreit is also an analyst on ESPN’s College Football GameDay show on Saturday morning. For some weeks, he even travels to another city to call a game later in the day.
Since 2006, Herbstreit has been ESPN/ABC’s main game analyst. Last season, he called 33 games and worked 16 GameDay shows in 36 cities. He has been to 12 cities so far this season, calling six college games, three NFL matchups, and three others for College GameDay.
This week, Herbstreit will go from Washington to Dallas, where College GameDay and the Oklahoma-Texas game will be held.
Chase Claypool Sent Home
The Bears made a big move at last year’s trade deadline to acquire wide receiver Chase Claypool from the Pittsburgh Steelers for a second-round pick. He had 153 catches with 12 touchdowns in 39 games with the Steelers and was brought in to be a top target for quarterback Justin Fields.
Yet, with the Bears, Claypool only has 18 catches and one touchdown in 10 games.
After Week 3, Claypool responded to a reporter’s question saying he did not think the Bears were putting him in the best position to succeed. As a result, the team told him to stay home for last Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos.
The Bears lost a 28-7 third-quarter lead and lost by three to remain winless. Chicago head coach Matt Eberflus said earlier this week that it was “best for the team” if Claypool remained home. He is expected to be inactive for Thursday night’s game.
