With Dan Dierdorf’s retirement, CBS had a slot to fill among its game analyst ranks.  Today the network announced the addition of former QB Trent Green as a game analyst.  Green spent four seasons as a Thursday Night Football analyst on the radio for Westwood One and also served a season in the booth with Fox Sports.  Green will also contribute across CBS Sports platforms including NFL Monday QB and That Other Pregame Show on CBS Sports Network.

With Green’s addition, speculation immediately begins on where exactly he fits in the greater picture of the NFL on CBS.  At this point, it appears that the remaining broadcast teams aside from Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf should return in tact with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms at the top of the ladder.  Although CBS says Green’s play by play partner will be named at a later date, one would expect it to be Gumbel.  CBS doesn’t shuffle their broadcasters too much, so a straight swap involving the retiring Dierdorf and Green seems most likely.

If that is indeed the case, the question would then become whether Green and Gumbel would remain in their #2 perch or be leapfrogged by the popular Ian Eagle-Dan Fouts tandem.  If there was ever a time to give the deserving Eagle and Fouts a promotion, this would be it.  To be honest, I don’t recall much about Green’s time at Fox that stood out in either a good or bad way.  It would be quite the leap to throw Green into the #2 broadcast booth at the network given his relative low profile as an analyst.

Green’s addition continues a season of change for the NFL on CBS.  The network added Tony Gonzalez and Bart Scott to The NFL Today and relieved Shannon Sharpe and Dan Marino of their duties.  Another shakeup in the broadcast booth hierarchy would make this the most significant adjustments for the NFL on CBS in quite some time.