Former Houston Texans' legendary defensive end J.J. Watt last played football in 2022 with the Arizona Cardinals. Since hanging up his cleats, Watt has spent the last two years honing his craft in the broadcast TV world.
The former Texans superstar has been part of CBS’s NFL Today show over the last two years, one of the premier pregame shows every Sunday during the NFL season. Watt is taking another monumental step in his post-football career, which will get him closer to the action this upcoming season.
According to Aaron Wilson of KPRC-2, Watt will become the new game analyst for CBS’s No. 2 broadcasting team, partnering with play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle.
Retired #Texans star J.J. Watt @JJWatt named @NFLonCBS game analyst, in shift from studio, teaming up with Emmy Award winner Ian Eagle @KPRC2 https://t.co/rRcBVXcyIL https://t.co/LAU6ITR9sY
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) March 26, 2025
Watt will be taking Charles Davis’ place, who is moving to the college football side. Davis will be the network’s lead college analyst as he replaces Gary Danielson, who is retiring.
This is a big step for the former Texan, who has the playing career and resume to back up his analysis, which was displayed over the last two years on NFL Today. But now he’ll be front and center of the action, calling one of the biggest NFL games every week with Eagle.
When it was announced that Watt would be calling games this upcoming season, the former Houston star took to Twitter on Wednesday, showing a funny text message thread between him and Eagle.
New partnership is off to a hot start… @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/EZk1eI2fd8
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) March 26, 2025
As we can see, Watt is getting ready for the grind of the NFL season, but as a broadcaster. In the text thread, Eagle posted a funny picture of bananas and bottles of Saratoga water in response to Watt asking how he normally prepares.
Watt responded with multiple face-plaming emojis. It’s good to see these two guys having fun already, and we should expect to see the same this upcoming season. Who knows? Maybe Watt and Eagle will call a Texans game in 2025.