Before J.J. Watt ever called a game with Jim Nantz, the two sat in a fake booth and tried to figure out what their real one would sound like. CBS put a giant screen in front of them, handed them headsets and talkback buttons, and rolled an old Bills-Chiefs game as if it were live. For roughly five segments, Watt and Nantz called the action without knowing what was coming next. The point was not to sharpen Watt’s football knowledge. It was to hear where one voice ended and the other needed to begin.

That meant finding the tiny things viewers rarely notice when a booth is working: when Watt should jump in, when Nantz should leave him the play, when one voice should give way to the other. Nantz later called it their “yin and yang” and said they never stepped on each other. But that rhythm is still taking shape for Watt and Nantz, and the friction has not gone unnoticed by viewers comparing the new pairing with the one that came before it. Watt’s preparation has rarely been the question; it is the chemistry, timing and feel for a television moment that viewers say still separate him from Romo. Yet, they have their next assignment: to give CBS another chance to see how far the pairing has come.

Ahead of Week 4, here’s what we know about who will be behind the microphone: “News: Jim Nantz, JJ Watt and Tracy Wolfson will be in Vegas this Sunday to call Chiefs-Raiders at 4:25. Kevin Harlan and Trent Green get the Broncos-Niners game,” reported Underscore Media podcast host Jimmy Traina on September 29. The assignment matters because Week 3 gave viewers something quite revealing. 

Watt and Nantz finally had a game that demanded the kind of television instincts CBS will need from its No. 1 booth. The Ravens-Cowboys thriller in Rio went down to the final second, and when Tyler Loop drilled the 56-yard winner, the booth came alive. Nantz hit the moment with “A trio in Rio!” while Watt followed with, “What did we just watch?!”

And yet, the reaction to Watt has remained complicated.

Watt has already shown that the football part of the job is not a concern. In his first game with Nantz, he arrived with the kind of preparation that showed up in the smallest details. When Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell successfully challenged a catch ruling against Green Bay, Watt already had O’Connell’s career challenge-success rate, 58 percent, ready to go. 

Later, when a Jonathan Gannon blitz forced an interception, Watt connected it to the defensive coordinator’s three seasons coaching Kyler Murray in Arizona. The details were there.

What was harder to manufacture was the instinct that develops between two broadcasters after years of sharing a booth. That was visible even in one of Watt and Nantz’s better sequences. With less than two minutes left in the first half, Watt spotted a free play after Green Bay jumped offside and told viewers to watch for Carson Wentz to take a shot downfield. Moments later, Justin Jefferson came down with the touchdown. “There it is, here’s your shot,” Nantz said before finishing the call. It worked because Watt had set the moment up and Nantz knew exactly when to take it over.

That distinction has become important because Romo and Nantz were once learning the same lessons themselves. 

When Romo joined CBS in 2017, the network did not simply throw the rookie analyst into a regular-season game and expect the chemistry to appear. Before his first game, CBS had Nantz and Romo work a “shadow” broadcast of the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, calling the action from a makeshift booth about 10 feet above the stands. They were learning the same small details Watt and Nantz are now trying to establish: when to talk, when to leave space and how to build off something the other person has just said.

Years later, that partnership had become recognizable enough that viewers could hear the rhythm without thinking about it. Even when Romo’s style became a source of criticism, Nantz knew how to handle his interruptions, jokes and bursts of enthusiasm. 

In Super Bowl LVIII, for example, Romo jumped into Nantz’s call of Patrick Mahomes’ game-winning touchdown almost immediately. Nantz defended him afterward, describing Romo’s enthusiasm as organic. That kind of understanding does not appear overnight; it comes from hundreds of hours of learning where the other voice is going next.

Watt and Nantz simply have not had that luxury yet. And the difference became harder to ignore after their trip to Brazil.

The Ravens-Cowboys game at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium gave the new CBS pairing an unusually dramatic stage, and the ending gave them a chance to show what they could do when the game itself supplied the electricity. Dallas tied the game with seven seconds left, only for Lamar Jackson to hit Zay Flowers and set up Tyler Loop for a 56-yard field goal with one second remaining. Nantz and Watt reacted to the sequence with the kind of urgency the moment demanded, with Nantz delivering “A trio in Rio!” after Loop’s kick.

For a few seconds, the booth sounded less like a temporary replacement and more like a crew settling into its own voice. Yet that same broadcast also became the backdrop for the criticism Watt has received. Some viewers began comparing his delivery and reactions with Romo’s, while others went further and accused Watt of sounding like the analyst he replaced. Social media reactions calling for Romo’s return followed the broadcast. Again, that comparison is not entirely about football knowledge. 

Bryan Curtis drew the distinction after watching Watt, describing him as sharp and capable while arguing that Romo had developed a better feel for television and for recognizing when to pounce on a big moment. Watt has already shown that he can explain why a play happened. The question is whether he can develop the same television instinct that made Romo’s best calls feel spontaneous rather than studied.

CBS has now kept the same pairing together for another high-profile late-afternoon window, sending Nantz, Watt and Tracy Wolfson to Las Vegas for Chiefs-Raiders. The Chiefs and Raiders are both 3-0 entering the matchup, meaning Watt will have another nationally prominent game in which the booth itself will be part of the conversation.

For Romo, however, the Week 4 decision closes one door without answering the larger question. CBS has placed him on leave since his July arrest in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, and the network has not announced a timetable for his return. The latest assignment confirms only that he will not be back for Week 4; it does not establish whether the absence will extend through the rest of the season.

Romo has also made it clear that he wants to return. In a statement following the arrest, he acknowledged his struggles with pain medication and alcohol, accepted responsibility for his actions and said that his attention was turning toward his health and family and, “in time,” his return to CBS. That puts his public position on the record, but the network has yet to provide a corresponding timeline.

There is also a business question behind the silence. Romo remains one of the highest-paid NFL analysts in television, and reports about the value and remaining years on his CBS contract have made any potential separation more complicated than simply replacing one voice in a booth. If CBS ultimately decides to alter its top team, it would have to work through both the broadcasting and contractual sides of that decision. 

But Week 4 is settled. For at least one more Sunday, CBS is choosing to see what Watt and Nantz can become together.