If you were looking for insight from the CBS team broadcasting Minnesota’s 39-22 comeback win over Green Bay on Sunday afternoon, you were rewarded even before the first snap.
Asked by his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, what he was focusing on with new Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, JJ Watt told viewers that Murray was playing against his former head coach Jonathan Gannon. The now-Green Bay defensive coordinator was dismissed from the head coaching job in Arizona at the end of last season.
“Let’s see what Gannon knows about Kyler and uses against him,” Watt told the audience.
One play later, Gannon sent an armada of Packers on a blitz against his former quarterback. Viewers could hear Watt say “bringing the heat,” and seconds later Murray’s throw into double coverage was intercepted by Green Bay cornerback Keisean Nixon. (Murray suffered a violent collision to the head on just the 11th snap of the game and was ruled out of the game with a concussion.)
“Jim, we wondered about the chess match between Gannon and Murray,” Watt said. “Gannon decided to send everybody in. Kyler Murray with a panic throw. He just chucked it up there! And it stayed in the air forever! Easy pick for Nixon. That’s a perfect example of Jonathan Gannon using some of his knowledge to get up in the face.”
It was a picture-perfect start for Watt, who never expected to be in the No 1 chair this season. But Watt’s situation changed after the arrest of Tony Romo in July, something that prompted CBS to place Romo on leave and move Watt up from the No 2 broadcasting team.
Romo has since pleaded no contest to the civil offense of operating while intoxicated, and posted a statement on Instagram following the adjudication of the charges. “These are my failures and I take responsibility for them,” he wrote.
CBS Sports president David Berson said last month that there is no timeline for a decision about Romo’s future. What was not said on that day – notably – was a guarantee that Romo was coming back to CBS. He has four years remaining on a contract that pays him $18m annually. On Sunday, a CBS Sports spokesperson declined to comment on Romo, pointing back to the company’s previous statement on the subject.
Watt’s ascension to the CBS No 1 job is interesting because the NFL’s lead broadcasts have traditionally been presented by an analyst who played on offense – usually at quarterback (Troy Aikman, Tom Brady, Phil Simms and Romo are the most notable examples).
There have been some notable non-quarterback exceptions: most recently, Greg Olsen, a former tight end, was Fox’s No 1 game analyst before Brady; while NBC’s lead analyst Cris Collinsworth was a Pro Bowl wide receiver. In now-ancient times, CBS had Tom Brookshier, a former cornerback, and Pat Summerall, a kicker who went from the color analyst chair to play by play. This is separate from the former coaches (John Madden, Jon Gruden) who have sat in the chair. They often have experience on both sides of the ball.
“I always knew from studying defenses what they were doing, but I was never sitting in meetings with defensive coordinators asking something like, ‘How do you break down pass protections?’ Now I’m getting those answers and able to provide defensive analysis,” Olsen told me in 2023. “You don’t always have to tell the viewer where the ball started and where the ball ended up. You can bring in the other elements that make football complicated but also so cool.”
Sunday’s broadcast was not perfect. Watt and Nantz do not yet have the chemistry that Watt and Ian Eagle shared. The natural deadpan humor of Eagle allowed Watt to flash some levity on the broadcast. Watt is also less exuberant than Romo, and there is always an entertainment aspect to these broadcasts.
But he was exceptionally well prepared and offered enough interesting observations to ensure viewers were well-served, especially in a wild game that turned on defense in the fourth quarter. Watt is very good at analyzing defensive designs and when line protections break down and he was especially strong on some questionable defensive penalties on the Packers late in the game. He was also notably all over Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson’s 39-yard second-quarter touchdown, urging quarterback Carson Wentz “to take a shot” on a free play when a Green Bay defender was clearly offsides prior to the snap. If you want a word to describe his performance, the choice would be “solid.”
There is an expectation that a decision on Romo’s future will come sooner rather than later given that all parties are in limbo. It also needs to happen for practical reasons. I’ve done some embeds with NFL broadcasting teams, including CBS, and people working behind the scenes need a resolution. That’s because how you do your job, say as a replay producer, is directly tied to who the lead analyst is on a broadcast. CBS’s Week 2 and 3 NFL assignments should come out as early as Monday and the expectation is Watt will be assigned to the No 1 team.
Most people who work in sports media do not expect Romo to be back with CBS’s No 1 team in 2026. But that is just speculation for now. Only Berson knows for sure and the clock is ticking. The good news for CBS? On Sunday, Watt sounded like a solution for 2026.