Just like Peyton and Eli Manning, J.J. Watt has no interest in doing TV every week.
While The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reports that Watt has several network NFL TV offers on the table, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer still has to decide whether he wants to take any of them. Awful Announcing reported last month that NBC was hoping to land the recently retired Watt for its Big Ten studio road show and subsequent coverage, with him being an obvious fit having played at Wisconsin. Watt would also likely have a significant role on Sunday Night Football as well.
However, at the time, Watt was being courted by multiple networks and thus might not ultimately land at NBC, which falls in line with Marchand’s reporting. In addition to NBC, CBS and NFL Network have shown interest in Watt, with CBS being considered the favorite, according to Marchand.
If Watt does take a TV job, it would be a Manning-esque part-time TV schedule. Marchand reports that any potential TV gig for Watt would not be a full-time job because he does not want the time commitment. No, Watt would not be doing a ManningCast of his own for CBS, or any interested network, though that would be a lot of fun. However, it seems that any commitment to doing NFL TV would be similar to that of Peyton and Eli, who are set to do up to 10 games for The Worldwide Leader in 2023
Given the success of the broadcast and the fact that ESPN has already re-upped the Mannings through 2024, it stands to reason that we could see the ManningCast expand from its current schedule of nine regular season games and one Wild Card Weekend game into a full-season situation.
According to Peyton, however, there’s no interest from their side in doing the broadcast every week.
And that seems to be the case with Watt, who is expected to be on the pregame show for the Super Bowl and make some appearances during the regular season. It’s worth noting that this is a Super Bowl year for CBS, so adding someone of Watt’s caliber would certainly be a big get for the network.
Speaking of ESPN, Watt will not be the new co-host of The Pat McAfee Show when it moves over to its new home.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.