J.J. Watt spent last season easing into a second career most former players only dream about. He wasn’t thrown into the deep end right away — instead, he learned the ropes alongside Ian Eagle on CBS’s No. 2 broadcast, getting real reps on big games and proving he could handle the booth.

That steady ramp-up just got blown up.

Tony Romo’s viral arrest in Wisconsin on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated forced CBS into an unexpected shake-up right before the season. Romo was placed on leave until further notice, and suddenly Watt wasn’t in a training role anymore — he was stepping straight into the network’s top booth alongside Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson.

CBS is calling it temporary for now, with CBS Sports president David Berson describing the situation as “evolving” and saying there’s no timeline for a final decision on Romo. But even if that’s technically true, the reality doesn't change: Watt's now in the biggest chair CBS has to offer.

Starting Sept. 13 with Packers-Vikings, he’ll be calling the network’s marquee games every week — playoff implications, huge audiences, and all the pressure that comes with sitting next to Jim Nantz. And if he handles it well, CBS may be staring down a much bigger question than when Romo comes back.

Why move Watt back at all?

One Season Put Watt On The Fast Track

CBS didn’t just grab a well-known former player out of the studio and toss him into its biggest booth without a plan. They’d been building toward this.

Watt joined the network in 2023, not long after retiring from a 12-year NFL career that included three Defensive Player of the Year awards, five first-team All-Pro nods, and 114.5 sacks. He spent two seasons on The NFL Today before sliding into the booth alongside Eagle for the 2025 season.

And honestly, the transition went better than even Watt probably expected.

After 17 games together, Watt said he “absolutely loved” working in the booth and gave a lot of credit to Eagle’s timing and personality for how quickly their chemistry clicked. The pairing even cracked the top five in Awful Announcing’s 2025 NFL announcer rankings.

But the bigger thing was that Watt still sounded like himself.

He wasn’t just another ex-quarterback trying to predict coverages before the snap. He brought viewers into the stuff broadcasts usually gloss over — hand placement, protection calls, pass-rush plans, and all the little trench battles that decide a play before the quarterback even gets touched.

That was his world for over a decade. At his peak, every offense came in with a plan built around him. So when he talks about football, it’s not theory — it’s experience. He’s seen every adjustment, every chip block.

And he also gets that knowing football isn’t enough on TV.

Throughout his first season, Watt talked openly about trying to find the right balance — explaining the game without over-explaining it, keeping things informative without turning every snap into a lecture. He wanted fans to learn something without feeling like they were sitting in a classroom.

That’s a tricky line for any analyst. Watt was still figuring out when to jump in, when to let Eagle breathe, and how hard to critique players without offending anybody. He’s even admitted he’s careful about assigning blame because he remembers how it feels when an analyst gets a player’s job wrong.

It wasn’t perfect. But it was real, and it was improving fast enough that CBS already had him pegged as a long-term answer before everything with Romo shifted the timeline.

The No. 1 Booth Changes The Test

Working with Nantz isn’t the same job as working with Eagle, even if both make life easier for the guy sitting next to them.

Watt and Eagle clicked pretty quickly. Eagle’s sarcasm gave Watt room to relax, and the whole thing felt like two guys watching football who just happen to have microphones in front of them. It was loose, it was fun, and it didn’t feel forced.

Nantz is a different deal. He’s got a very polished style and nearly a decade of habits built alongside Romo. Since 2017, those two have called three Super Bowls and settled into the kind of rhythm CBS leans on for its biggest games. Tracy Wolfson and lead producer Jim Rikhoff are part of that machine too, and everything runs on timing and familiarity.

So Watt isn’t stepping into a blank slate. He’s walking into a well-oiled machine — but he can’t try to be the guy who just left.

Nantz seems pretty confident Watt can handle it. He’s called him a “very, very talented communicator” and talked about the way Watt carried himself as a leader during his playing days as proof that this part should come naturally.

And honestly, the preparation hasn’t really been the question. Watt treated his first year in the booth like film study all over again, and Eagle even called him a “pro’s pro” after their season together.

The real adjustment is everything around the football.

Because a slip-up in a mid-tier CBS game might get a few annoyed tweets. A slip-up in the national window turns into a clip and a whole week of people deciding what kind of broadcaster you are. Watt even admitted on The Dan Patrick Show that the bigger audience just means more noise.

Romo went through that same cycle. He came in hot in 2017, predicting plays before the snap and changing what people expected from an analyst. But over time, the predictions slowed down, and the criticism started to pile up around his pacing, his prep, and the way he filled airtime.

Still, Watt isn’t stepping into a booth that’s lost its relevance. He’s stepping into one of the biggest seats in sports television — and now it’s on him to make it his own without breaking what already works.

CBS May Not Get To Call This Temporary

After CBS put Romo on leave, Berson explained some of the thinking behind the decision: 

We had to consider the impact on our image and on our brand. That’s very important to us. Whether the games, marketing, PR, social, the focus should and needs to be on our presentation and not on any other factors.

On top of that, there are still four years and an estimated $72 million left on the 10-year, $180 million deal Romo signed in 2020. So this isn’t a simple “who sounds better in the booth” kind of decision for CBS.

Watt can’t control the legal process, the contract, or how long CBS decides to wait things out. And honestly, he doesn’t need to.

He just needs to make it a tough decision.

If the new setup feels off, CBS can always point to Watt as a solid stand-in and eventually go back to what they had. But if he brings the same mix of prep, personality, and defensive insight he showed with Eagle, then CBS might realize its next top analyst is already in the building — and already sitting next to Nantz.

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