CBS is catching heat again, and this time the complaint isn’t about what happened on the field. It’s about which game got the network’s top broadcast crew.
For Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. ET window, CBS assigned Jim Nantz and J.J.
Watt to Raiders-Chiefs instead of Broncos-49ers, a move that immediately set off NFL fans online. Pro Football Talk reported the details on Tuesday, and the reaction was swift: plenty of viewers saw it as the network choosing star power over the more compelling football matchup.
The contrast was easy to spot. The 49ers are undefeated, while the Broncos are 2-1, making Broncos-49ers the kind of game that had clear Super Bowl implications for many observers. Raiders-Chiefs, meanwhile, came in with both teams at 3-0 and carried the added pull of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the constant attention that follows Kansas City.
That was enough for many fans to accuse CBS of leaning into the familiar names. “It’s because Patrick mahomes has these refs in this pocket so he just thinks he can call for his games to be on CBS more broncos 49ers should actually be the game of the day,” one fan wrote.
Another pointed to the football angle even while acknowledging the broadcast logic: “One is a divisional game, so it makes sense, but Broncos Niners will be the more exciting game,” another noted.
A third fan went straight at the network’s priorities: “Cbs pulls #1 tv crew from donkey 49ers game. Cbs knows America loves chiefs and mahomes,” a third offered.
The move also confirmed that Tony Romo’s leave of absence continues, with Nantz and Watt remaining CBS’s main duo for the network’s biggest games. That prompted more calls for Romo’s return, even as the assignment itself suggested the network is comfortable keeping its current setup in place for marquee matchups.
Another fan framed the decision through the Raiders’ lens: “Not the @NFL going back on trying to punish the @Raiders and not give any nationally televised games to sucking us off because of our record!”
For CBS, the optics were never going to be clean once the assignments were announced. Broncos-49ers offered the sharper on-field storyline, but Raiders-Chiefs brought the bigger names, the bigger draw, and the kind of national attention networks have chased for years.
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For a team trying to keep pace in the AFC West, the bigger concern is less about the headline names and more about how thin some spots appear if the game plan gets tested. The chart gives a clearer sense of who is positioned for meaningful snaps, but it also leaves open a familiar Raiders question heading into Kansas City: whether the current mix is sturdy enough to withstand a high-pressure opponent without forcing the staff to improvise. [Read more 🡒]