Tony Romo loves Jalen Hurts, but he’s really been impressed by Eagles owner Jeff Lurie

Tony Romo proudly wore silver and blue during his 13 seasons as the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. But entering his seventh season with CBS, one which will end with his calling the Super Bowl, Romo sounds as if he’s bleeding Eagles green.
Like just about every NFL analyst, Romo loves Jalen Hurts and is high on the Eagles entering the 2023 season. But he was also one of the few who predicted the team could end up with double-digit wins in 2021 coming off a four-win season. Romo said he saw that turnaround coming in part because of the Eagles’ front office and its approach to setting high standards as an organization, which he credits to the leadership of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.
“We interview all these players, coaches, front office personnel. I really got to enjoy Jeffrey Lurie early on, and that made me like the Eagles and root for them,” Romo said. “I root for the Cowboys, I root for the Eagles, I root for a lot of teams because of the players and because of the people.”
Romo said he was impressed by Lurie’s willingness to bring back Howie Roseman after he had been demoted as the team’s general manager under then-head coach Chip Kelly in 2014, something Romo said “you never see happen.” He also credited Lurie for his willingness to part ways with Doug Pederson, who led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win in 2018, and replace him with a relatively unknown coach in Nick Sirianni.
“This was a franchise-changing decision,” Romo said of the hiring of Sirianni. “He has evolved that offense, he’s evolved that defense, and he’s made it where they truly do take advantage of their personnel. ... Like they went and hired college coaches to help with the stuff that some of the other coaches didn’t necessarily know.”
Romo will once again be paired with veteran broadcaster Jim Nantz, who is entering his 20th season as the lead play-by-play voice on CBS. The duo have called just four Eagles games dating back to their first year together in 2017, but this year, they’ll call at least two — the Week 1 opener against the New England Patriots, and the Week 12 matchup against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 26.
“The question right now for this group is will we see the Eagles twice or three times this year?” Nantz said. “And if its three, third time is the charm, and that means we’ll see Eagles fans in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.”
In addition to Romo, Nantz, and Tracy Wolfson, who returns as the network’s top sideline reporter, a pair of familiar voices in Philadelphia will call NFL games for CBS this season — Phillies announcer Tom McCarthy and Eagles preseason announcer Ross Tucker. CBS also added retired defender J.J. Watt as a part-time analyst on The NFL Today, where he’ll debut in Week 1 ahead of Eagles-Patriots.
The Birds are certainly a hot TV commodity entering the season — the team is scheduled to appear in prime time five times, and just three games all season are currently scheduled for 1 p.m. kickoffs.
ESPN gets flex scheduling and more ‘Monday Night Football’ doubleheaders
ESPN shuffled the pregame and halftime crew for Monday Night Football because of cutbacks at Disney — out are Philadelphia-area native Suzy Kolber and Hall of Famer Steve Young, in are Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears, and Robert Griffin III. But returning in the booth for their second season at ESPN (and their 22nd together calling NFL games) are Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, along with King of Prussia native Lisa Salters reporting from the sideline.
Last season, the NFL experimented with giving ESPN and ABC one night featuring overlapping Monday Night Football games. They must have been pleased with the results, because this season it expands to three — including Week 3, which will feature the Eagles vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on ABC and the Los Angeles Rams vs. the Cincinnati Bengals on ESPN.
Because of the number of overlapping games, ESPN will once again have a dedicated No. 2 team featuring longtime college football announcer Chris Fowler, who replaces Steve Levy on play-by-play. Fowler will be joined by analysts Dan Orlovsky and Louis Riddick, a former Eagles executive, with Laura Rutledge reporting.
The Eagles’ highly anticipated Super Bowl rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11 on Nov. 20 will also take place on Monday Night Football, where it will be televised on both ESPN and ABC. Peyton and Eli Manning that night will host their ManningCast, which is returning for its third season on ESPN2.
Another wrinkle this season on Monday Night Football will be the ability to flex games between Week 12 and 17. With games moving from Sundays to Mondays and vice versa, the NFL must notify teams no later than 12 days in advance of the game.
Eagles home opener will stream on Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’
Just four days after their season opener against the Patriots, the Eagles will head to Lincoln Financial Field in Week 2 to take on the Minnesota Vikings, kicking off the second season of Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video.
Returning to call games on Amazon is veteran play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, who will pair up once again with ESPN’s top college football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit. Kaylee Hartung, who joined NBC’s Today show earlier this year as a national correspondent, will handle sideline reporting duties this season. Also returning for Amazon’s second season is its full studio crew, featuring host Charissa Thompson and analysts Tony Gonzalez, Richard Sherman, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Andrew Whitworth.
The Eagles are scheduled to play only once on Thursday Night Football but could end up playing on Prime Video again later in the season thanks to the NFL’s controversial decision to expand flex scheduling to Thursday night.
Because games would move up three days, from Sunday to Thursday, the rules are tight for Amazon — flex scheduling is in play only from Weeks 13 to 17 (there is no Thursday Night Football game in Week 18); the NFL has to notify teams no later than 28 days prior to the game; and the league is limited to just two such moves this season.
Flex scheduling isn’t the only gift Amazon received from the NFL this season. For the first time in league history, there will be a game on Black Friday — New York Jets vs. the Miami Dolphins — that will stream exclusively on Prime Video.
Fox lands a bunch of great Eagles games, including Christmas Day
With Tom Brady looming in the background, Fox’s highly rated Super Bowl broadcasting duo of Kevin Burkhardt (who grew up rooting for the Eagles) and Greg Olsen return to call the network’s top games this season, which will feature plenty of Birds action.
Brady has said he will join Fox as its top NFL analyst in 2024, giving Olsen one more year in the top spot alongside Burkhardt and sideline reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi. Among the Eagles games he’ll get to call this season will be the Birds’ Christmas Day matchup against the New York Giants, part of a tripleheader in Week 16 that will also feature games on CBS and ABC.
Fox also landed some other choice Eagles games this season, including their Week 6 matchup against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets, a Week 9 faceoff with the Cowboys, and a rematch of the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 13.
Otherwise, it’s status quo for Fox, which didn’t make a single change to its broadcast teams in its 30th season broadcasting NFL games. In fact, Fox added just one new personality — former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman, who is replacing new Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton on the network’s pre-pregame show, NFL Kickoff.
NBC’s Cris Collinsworth is high on the Eagles
It wasn’t that long ago that Eagles fans were booing Cris Collinsworth during the Birds’ Super Bowl parade, peeved at what they viewed as favoritism toward Brady and the New England Patriots during the broadcast.
Now Collinsworth is back for his 15th season calling Sunday Night Football games at NBC, and he thinks the Birds are on the short list of Super Bowl contenders.
“Howie Roseman does it exactly how I would do it, which is be the biggest, baddest team on the offensive and defensive lines, and then fill in around it,” Collinsworth said, highlighting the team’s decision to trade up to take Georgia standout Jalen Carter in the first round of this year’s NFL draft, despite character concerns stemming from a racing incident in January that resulted in the deaths of two people, including one of his teammates.
“I just can’t believe they got him,” Collinsworth said. “I thought he was the best player in the draft. More power to them.”
Collinsworth will once again be joined by play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico, entering his second season as the voice of Sunday Night Football and his 18th season calling NFL prime-time games. Melissa Stark is also back as the sideline reporter. In addition to their Sunday Night Football schedule, the crew will be in Kansas City on Thursday to call the NFL kickoff game between the Chiefs and Detroit Lions, which will air on NBC.
Just two seasons ago, the Eagles didn’t play a single Sunday Night Football game. This year the Birds are scheduled for two — Oct. 22 against the Dolphins, and Dec. 10 against the Cowboys.
About the only change for NBC this season is that the network will stream two games exclusively on Peacock, including a playoff game during the wild-card round in prime time on Jan. 13, 2024 — a first for the NFL.