J.J. Watt was steady, competent as Tony Romo’s replacement

For a moment, it was reasonable to worry that the uncle-nephew dynamic that had come to define Jim Nantz and Tony Romo’s final seasons together would simply transfer to Nantz and J.J. Watt.

Not because of any red flags — no strange noises, no lack of preparation, no sense that Watt was talking over his 67-year-old partner — but because there’s a gap in generations between the two. Nantz has forgotten more about calling football games than most analysts will ever know, but there was no telling whether he’d be able to keep pace with Watt pulling Office references off the cuff, which is exactly what Watt did in his initial debut with Ian Eagle.

Watt and Nantz didn’t sound like a crew working through those kinks, though.

If anything, Watt was overprepared. When Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell challenged a first-half call that ruled a Packers receiver had caught a four-yard pass he hadn’t actually caught — a challenge that succeeded — Watt had a stat ready in his back pocket: O’Connell entered the day converting 58 percent of his career challenges. Maybe that number got fed to him through his headset. Maybe he dug it up himself. Either way, it matched the rest of his afternoon, four quarters that sounded like the work of someone who’d been buried in Packers-Vikings film since CBS’s first media day back in August.

Haven’t said much because it’s not the circumstances you’d hope it would happen under, but I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity and look forward to working with a legendary team in Jim Nantz, Tracy Wolfson, Jim Rikhoff and the entire CBS lead crew.

See you in Minnesota! pic.twitter.com/9IKaTg5cTv

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) August 11, 2026

That preparation showed up early on, too. On Kyler Murray’s first pass attempt as a Minnesota Viking — before Murray left the game with a concussion — Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon dialed up a blitz that got home for an interception. Watt didn’t just note the pressure. He explained where it came from, pointing out that Gannon had coached Murray in Arizona for three seasons before Murray was released in March, and that the pressure package was built directly off tendencies Gannon already knew from that time together.

The best moment of the broadcast came with under two minutes left in the first half. Watt noted that Carson Wentz, in relief of the injured Murray, had a free play after a Packers defender jumped offside, and told viewers to watch for Wentz to take a shot downfield.

“There it is, here’s your shot,” Nantz said as Justin Jefferson hauled in the touchdown moments later. “To the end zone, and it is caught. You want your shot? You got it, for a touchdown.”

Jim Nantz and J.J. Watt have the Packers-Vikings call for CBS.

Thoughts on Watt’s debut with Nantz? 🏈🎙️ #NFL pic.twitter.com/KQflwilF7R

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 13, 2026

Nobody who covers sports media for a living walked into Week 1 expecting Watt and Nantz to sound like Pat Summerall and John Madden. Competent was always going to be the realistic bar, and given everything that happened at CBS this summer, competent was more than enough. Watt still has room to grow as a No. 1 analyst — he hasn’t come close to his ceiling, unlike his predecessor — but the foundation is there for him to become one of the better analysts in NFL media, if he isn’t already.

Watt doesn’t have a schtick. He doesn’t have a magic trick. But like Romo, who once upon a time made football feel like hanging out with the smartest guy in your fantasy league, Watt has a similar vibe to him. He’s sharp and prepared, but he’s also funny — not the forced funny like Romo, but he has little quirks to him that make it clear he’s terminally online, while also understanding the modern nuances of the average media consumer.

As I said to Brendon Kleen on our The Play-By-Play podcast, Watt to me in the booth sounds like Watt the Pat McAfee Show guest, and that’s meant as a compliment. Just as Sean Keeley said, we needed more of the Tom Brady who was a guest on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and we largely have gotten that since his unimpressive rookie showing; what you see from Watt on any platform is who you get. He’s authentically himself, can give you perspectives from both sides of the football, and shoots from the hip. He’s not Troy Aikman in the sense that he’s said “f*ck it” and is going no holds barred, but he tells you what he sees with his own eyes and doesn’t sugarcoat it for you.

Can we definitively say Watt is infinitely better than Romo? No. But after all the noise around Romo — inside the booth and out, the performance issues, the antics, the fall from grace that ended with a DUI arrest — Sunday made one thing clear: CBS doesn’t have a Romo problem anymore. It has a Watt opportunity, and one week in, he’s already running with it.