Russell Wilson to Join CBS Sports, Passing Over Opportunity for NFL Return

The Super Bowl XLVIII champion is headed to TV.

Russell Wilson is hanging up his cleats. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Russell Wilson’s playing days seem to be coming to an end.

After spending the 2025 season with the Giants, the 10-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl XLVIII champion is hanging up his cleats and joining CBS Sports as an NFL analyst. Wilson is set to be an analyst on the network’s Sunday pregame show, NFL Today, alongside James Brown, Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher. He’ll replace Matt Ryan, who accepted a job as the Falcons’s president of football this offseason. Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports was first to report the news.

Glass Break: Russell Wilson is expected to replace Matt Ryan on CBS's NFL Today, sources told @FOS.@AndrewMarchand previously tabbed CBS as the favorite to land Wilson https://t.co/eaqCn7TY62

— Ryan Glasspiegel (@sportsrapport) June 1, 2026

Wilson, 37, took a free agency visit with the Jets this offseason and according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, has an offer to be a backup quarterback. That said, while he may not officially be retiring, he’s at least pausing his playing career for a stint in the media.

After being selected by the Seahawks in the third-round of the 2012 NFL draft, Wilson won the starting quarterback job outright over free-agent signing Matt Flynn and led Seattle to two-consecutive Super Bowls in 2013 and ’14—winning the former over the Broncos in just his second season at the helm. Wilson would go on to develop into one of the league’s top signal-callers, leading the NFL in touchdown passes in 2017 while throwing for 30-plus scores in four consecutive seasons from 2017 to ’20.

An up-and-down season in 2021 saw the Seahawks trade Wilson to the Broncos the following spring, where he signed a whopping five-year, $245 million contract. He would spend just two seasons in Denver, however, going 11–19 as a starter before being benched at the end of 2023 to “preserve financial flexibility.”

Now, after one-year stints with the Steelers in 2024 and the Giants in ’25, Mr. Unlimited will soon be on a television near you.

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