Russell Wilson, the 10-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks, announced that he is joining CBS Sports and “The NFL Today” in a retirement video posted to social media on Wednesday.
Wilson, 37, completed his 14th NFL season last year with the New York Giants. He started the first three games, but largely struggled and was benched for rookie Jaxson Dart in Week 4. The Athletic reported last month that Wilson was in discussions to move into television, and “The NFL Today,” CBS’s Sunday pregame show, was considered the favorite.
Now, those talks are coming to fruition. Wilson will join host James Brown and analysts Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher on “The NFL Today.” The network had been looking for a replacement for the spot vacated by Matt Ryan, who left to become the Atlanta Falcons’ president of football.
Thank You, Football.
Love, #3 pic.twitter.com/hqlS7kWQpy
— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) June 3, 2026
Wilson has worked with CBS on a few occasions over the years, including during a Giants bye week last season.
The move marks the end of what is likely a Hall of Fame career for Wilson. A third-round draft pick in 2012, the undersized Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks to two Super Bowls, winning one in a blowout of the Denver Broncos following the 2013 season. The next season, the Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots after Wilson threw an interception late at the goal line.
After 10 successful seasons in Seattle, the Seahawks traded Wilson to the Broncos in 2022 in a deal that sent back two first-round, two second-round draft choices, one fifth-round pick and three players. But Wilson struggled to recreate the magic he found in Seattle. He played two seasons in Denver, followed by one-season stints with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Giants.
Wilson ranks fifth in career passer rating among players who have at least 1,500 attempts.
What to expect from Wilson the broadcaster
As a bona fide superstar quarterback, Wilson was always going to have great TV opportunities ahead of him once his playing days were over. His on-field career might not have ended as he would have wanted, but his TV career could get off to an impressively solid start.
The recent “former star player” seat on a broadcast studio show is a plum gig; it affirms you are a star and puts you in front of millions of fans every Sunday without a ton of pressure to be overly critical. Clearly, ex-QB is a classic sports-TV archetype — see Ryan on “The NFL Today” most recently, but the tradition extends decades to Terry Bradshaw on Fox, among others.
Wilson is one of the most well-known quarterbacks of the 21st century, and he brings charisma, the authority that comes with on-field success and a comfort level with the cameras to his new gig on CBS. He might not follow Ryan into an NFL front office — if anything, the most interesting development would be if Wilson ever unretires and tries to get back on the field — but he definitively adds star power to the analyst lineup of Burleson and Cowher ahead of a jam-packed Sunday NFL schedule for CBS this fall. — Dan Shanoff, sports business managing editor
