Tony Romo likely won’t call any Eagles games this season, but he’s high on the Birds

“It comes down to Jalen Hurts," Romo said of the Eagles' chances this season.

CBS announcer Tony Romo (right) returns to call games this season alongside Jim Nantz. But don't expect the duo on any Eagles games this season.Read moreCBS

Published Sept. 9, 2022, 7:00 a.m. ET

It seems like everyone is picking the Eagles to make a lot of noise, thanks to the development of Jalen Hurts and the offseason additions of A.J. Brown, Haason Reddick, and first-round draft pick Jordan Davis.

Add one more national media figure to the Eagles-lovers list — Tony Romo.

The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback-turned-broadcaster is entering his sixth season as the top NFL analyst at CBS, where he will once again call games alongside longtime play-by-play voice Jim Nantz. The duo likely won’t call many Eagles games — the Birds are only scheduled to appear on CBS three times — but Romo likes what he sees developing in Philadelphia.

“I think they’re extremely talented… and I expect them to really contend in the NFC East,” Romo said of the Eagles during a recent conference call. “It comes down to Jalen Hurts, it really does. If he has the ability to take that next step this year, then I think they have a chance to be that surprise team. But it’s really on him.”

We know how Hurts plans to deal with the pressure. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hurts called the lofty expectations placed on the team by folks like Romo “rat poison” and said he and his teammates have to do their best to simply ignore the talk.

“It’s all external factors that we don’t want to pertain ourselves to or be involved with,” Hurts said. “Fortunately for me, I’m very familiar with this space... All of it means nothing. Expectations are just something you haven’t done yet.”

In fairness to Romo, his optimism about the Eagles isn’t out of left field — he was also among the few who were high on the team entering last season, which ended with a playoff appearance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers almost no one predicted.

“I think the Eagles are going to be a surprise team,” Romo said before the start of last season. “I still think they have a lot of talented players and the coaching staff is good. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Eagles have a great season this year.”

Romo isn’t the only top NFL analyst who is high on the Birds. Longtime Sunday Night Football announcer Cris Collinsworth, entering his 14th season at NBC, said during a recent conference call he’s excited about the Eagles and gushed over most of the team’s roster.

“They just seem like a team to me that has added some people in the right places,” Collinsworth said. “The offensive line especially, most people talk about the two tackle positions. Fantastic, right? I mean, Lane Johnson is as good as it gets, and Jordan Mailata has really turned into something.”

“If you sort of follow the odds in the NFL, the team that probably has risen the fastest over the over the past little bit has been the Philadelphia Eagles,” Collinsworth added. “You just want to talk about a football team as a whole — I know it’s quarterback-driven, and that’s always going to be true — but the whole of the Eagles looks really good to me.”

After being passed over by Sunday Night Football last year, the Eagles are scheduled to host at least two primetime games on NBC this season — Oct. 16 against the Cowboys and Nov. 27 against the Green Bay Packers. Joining Collinsworth in the booth will be Mike Tirico, who is taking over now that Al Michaels is calling Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Like his broadcast partner, Tirico is high on the Eagles and especially the addition of Brown to the team’s wide receiving corps. He also thinks last year’s lopsided playoff loss to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers will end up being a valuable stepping stone for the young team.

“You go back to the Tampa playoffs game. It’s 31-0. But in that fourth quarter, [the Eagles] made a couple of plays and got back into the game,” Tirico said. “And you just get the sense the guys who had not been around the playoffs got a chance to see what it was about and understand where they need to be next year to be a team that doesn’t just get in, but can do something.”

“It really felt like a building block step for the Eagles,” Tirico added.