Why CBS’ Tony Romo believes Dolphins will take a ‘big leap’ this year. And NFL TV changes

The Dolphins, for the first time in awhile, get CBS’ lead announcing team Sunday, with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo calling Miami’s opener at New England.

And Romo expressed considerable optimism about the Dolphins’ future Tuesday, for reasons extending beyond them landing an elite quarterback prospect in Tua Tagovailoa.

“When you get six picks in the top 70,” Romo told me on a CBS Zoom call previewing the NFL season, “and what they’ve done in free agency, sometimes you look and [say teams] overspend, but I will tell you right now: I think everything the Dolphins have done, without evaluating talent they drafted, but the position, [is smart].

“It’s a big boy game. It really is. It’s O-line, D-line. To me, you’ve got to get offensive linemen and you’ve got to be able to cover and to get your d-linemen to play hard. If you get a special guy and lucky enough to get a top 5-10 pick,... then that’s a little bit more random.

“What they’re doing, they’re building it the right way. I really feel like you are going to see Miami come on. They will be better this year. There is no question they are going to be a much-improved team. The way they’re doing it is what I’m most impressed with. You will see them develop. Remember, the 49ers were bad, bad, bad for a little bit and then really good. They kept building that defensive line, offensive line. They did things that I think win in the National Football League.

“I think they are going to be much improved. I think you’re going to see Miami take a big leap this year. And in two years, you’re going to see a monster leap. I think [Brian] Flores is doing a good job. It’s a team to watch.

“You have a coach who comes from the Belichick tree that will be a little more man oriented. So they need cover corners. They went and got Byron Jones. They drafted Noah; haven’t studied him and not sure yet on him. But I will by the end of the week, will look at his tape from college.”

Romo then asked Charles Davis, CBS’ excellent new No. 2 analyst, if Noah Ignbinoghene is good.

“He’s good and fast and comes from a track background, mom and dad,” Davis said.

Nantz is eager to see “how good is Miami with this rebuilding process in full force.”

TV CHANGES

It was painfully clear that the end was near for Booger McFarland as ESPN’s “Monday Night Football’ analyst when he inexplicably suggested back in January, with Buffalo trailing by three points late in a wild-card playoff game against Houston, that the Bills should run a draw play on third down and then spike the ball on fourth down with only seconds remaining in regulation.

McFarland, soon after, was toast — as was play-by-play man Joe Tessitore — and ESPN embarked on yet another search to find an MNF booth that could offer both the stability and star power of its Mike Tirico/Jon Gruden pairing that worked seven years before Tirico left for NBC in 2016.

Gruden departed two years later, to coach the Raiders, and ESPN has struggled to find the right mix since, watching Jason Witten return to the field after one unimpressive season in the booth and then failing in attempts this past winter to lure Romo (who stayed with CBS for $18 million a year) and Peyton Manning, who’s content hosting creative studio programming for ESPN but apparently has no interest in calling games.

ESPN considered moving its lead college team — Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit — to MNF but ultimately picked its No. 3 college team, Steve Levy and Brian Griese, paired with studio analyst Louis Riddick.

The good news: Levy has the presence and the big personality to fit well in the MNF booth, and Riddick — a sharp and opinionated studio presence — deserves the opportunity to call games. Griese, at the very least, is competent.

The concern: Griese, if working on CBS or Fox, would likely be no better than a No. 4 game analyst. And Levy, while adequate as a play-by-play man, might be better in the studio. But at the very least, the potential is there for something better than the 2018 team (Tessitore, Witten, and McFarland positioned in his Booger Mobile) or 2019 (Tessitore and McFarland).

Tessitore is back calling college games for ESPN, and McFarland was given a role in ESPN’s Monday Night studio and ABC’s Saturday college football studio.

Meanwhile, CBS and Fox made several NFL changes. CBS lured Davis from Fox’s No. 2 team; he will pair with Ian Eagle on its No. 2 team and replaces Dan Fouts, whose contract was not renewed.

Kevin Harlan and Greg Gumbel flipped partners, with Harlan now paired with Trent Green and Gumbel with Rich Gannon.

▪ CBS’ teams, in order: Nantz-Romo, Eagle-Davis, Harlan-Green, Gumbel-Gannon, Andrew Catalon-James Lofton, Spero Dedes-Adam Archuleta, Tom McCarthy-Jay Feely, Beth Mowins-Tiki Barber.

As for Fox, the network hired former Miami Hurricanes star Jonathan Vilma from ESPN’s college studio to work as a game analyst, with Kenny Albert. Fox also dropped Ronde Barber, hired play-by-player Adam Amin from ESPN and promoted former NFL receiver Greg Jennings to a more prominent role on games.

Also, Fox hired Kevin Kugler, who called Sunday night NFL games for Westwood One, to replace No. 4 play-by-play man Thom Brennaman, whose career came to a halt when he uttered a homophobic slur on a live microphone during a Cincinnati Reds telecast. Fox won’t use him on NFL games this season and possibly permanently.

▪ Fox’s announcing teams: Joe Buck-Troy Aikman, Kevin Burkhardt-Daryl Johnston (who is keeping the seat warm until Greg Olsen retires), Amin-Mark Schlereth, Albert-Vilma, Kugler-Chris Spielman, Chris Myers-Jennings-Brock Huard.

Huard is available to work Fox NFL games because the Pac-12 and Big Ten aren’t playing this fall.

Fox also will give some games to play-by-play men Dick Stockton (working a part-time schedule for the first time), Tim Brando, Joe Davis and Brandon Gaudin and to analysts Brady Quinn, Matt Millen and Robert Smith.

▪ Unlike the presentation of NBA games on ABC/ESPN and MLB games on Fox, NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcasts won’t have virtual fans because - as producer Fred Gaudelli said — it “didn’t feel right” and would be very costly. CBS said Tuesday that it won’t have virtual fans, either.

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at virtual fans, and kudos to Fox for what they’ve done on their baseball coverage,” Gaudelli said. “Here’s where I feel like virtual fans fall short. In football, we have 25 cameras that cover the game. You would have to instrument 25 cameras and then build virtual fans for every single one of those angles in a realistic perspective. The technical power you would need to do that would increase the compound tenfold. It’s just not feasible financially or, I would probably say, technically at this point, to have every single camera configured so you can have it.

“And when you don’t have every single camera configured, as when you watch some of these games that Fox uses, you see the pitch from centerfield camera, there’s no one in the seats. You cut to the batter as you’re standing in the box to put in his batting average or what he’s done tonight, and you see there’s nobody behind him. Then the ball gets hit and then you see fans because that camera has instrumented fans.

“So, it becomes a little bit of a gimmick, and this is not a shot at Fox because I think what they’ve done is tremendous, but it’s just not realistic. So, you have fans, you don’t have fans, and at the end of the day, it just didn’t feel right to me.”

Here’s our Tuesday post with news from Brian Flores’ Tuesday press briefing and a practice report.

Here’s my Tuesday post with Bill Belichick’s comments about the Dolphins.

Here’s my loaded Dolphins 6-pack with their plans for the rookies and a bunch of other things.

This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 4:54 PM.

Barry Jackson

Miami Herald

305-376-3491

Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.