CBS Sports announced two big moves in its top football broadcast booths on Wednesday, creating a pathway that could end up with top NFL game analyst Tony Romo on the hot seat.
The first domino to fall is that longtime college football announcer Gary Danielson will retire following the 2025 season. Starting in 2026, Charles Davis will jump from calling NFL games to the network’s top college football booth alongside Brad Nessler. Last but perhaps most importantly, JJ Watt is getting the call to leave the NFL Today studio behind to replace Davis in the No. 2 NFL booth at CBS.
The end result is that Watt is suddenly a prominent part of the network’s broadcast roster. By winning the sweepstakes for one of the NFL’s most telegenic stars and solidifying Watt as a top analyst, CBS gives itself many options in the future.
As Andrew Marchand noted at The Athletic in his report breaking the news of Watt’s promotion, those options could revolve around Romo.
“One of the reasons CBS was forced to sign Romo in 2020 to what was the largest contract in sportscasting history is that it failed to have an alternative,” Marchand wrote. “With Watt on board, CBS might have someone in the on-deck circle.”
As Marchand added, Romo is in the sixth season of a 10-year, $180 million deal. In recent seasons, Cris Collinsworth re-upped at NBC while Fox went big on Tom Brady. It is well-known that Fox’s No. 2 color commentator, Greg Olsen, wants back into a top booth.
But by promoting Watt, CBS could begin to develop an in-house replacement for Romo. While his performance arguably rebounded in 2025 as he and Jim Nantz scored several huge games (including the annual Chiefs-Bills regular season and playoff bouts, as well as a shock ending between the top two picks in the NFL Draft) the year after they called the Super Bowl, Romo appears to be on thin ice with CBS executives.
In the 2022 offseason, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus and lead NFL producer Jim Rikhoff visited Romo at his home to review his performance from the year prior. While CBS PR said it was not an “intervention,” clearly, higher-ups at the network scrutinized Romo enough to spend considerable time coaching him up.
Fast forward to 2025, and the merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global is expected to go through in the coming months. That will place CBS Sports under new ownership ahead of potential renegotiations with the NFL, with an opt-out of the league’s TV deal coming in 2029.
At 44, Romo is on the younger end among top NFL broadcasters. But NFL partners put an extreme premium on putting out the best broadcast for its top NFL games. Look no further than ESPN turning over its NFL director once again this spring and Fox hiring Brady for a record sum as easy examples.
Maybe CBS will never replace Romo. If nothing else, putting the well-liked, whipsmart Watt on the roster will pressure Romo to be at his best and give CBS leverage in negotiations.