Chris Simms out on Football Night In America after NBC’s hire of Mike Tomlin

Former quarterback Chris Simms is reportedly out at NBC’s Football Night in America, per SBJ’s Richard Deitsch. This comes in light of Mike Tomlin being hired by the network as an NFL analyst.

The feeling was that Tomlin would eventually land on television for 2026, whether it’d be color commentary or studio work. FOS’ Michael McCarthy previously reported NBC was the favorite for Tomlin’s services.

Football Night in America already saw the departure of Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, who was with NBC since 2009. Naturally, Tomlin will fill that vacant spot on the studio show.

Tomlin will join host Maria Taylor, ex-Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty on FNIA. As The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand said, former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, host Jac Collinsworth and former QB Chris Simms’ roles were in question. The network is looking for more “current star power.” Now, Simms is officially out per Deitsch.

NFL insider Mike Florio and fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry are expected to return to the show, so Tomlin will see some familiar faces. In contrast to McCarthy’s report, Marchand reported FOX was actually the initial favorite due to the network looking for a replacement for Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson on FOX NFL Sunday. Plus, Tomlin has a good relationship with NFL insider Jay Glazer.

Simms played quarterback at Texas fro 1999-2002 before being drafted in the third round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Playing with the franchise for five seasons, Simms bounced around with the Titans, Broncos and back to the Titans through 2010. He was briefly a coaching assitant with the New England Patriots in 2012 before turning to broadcasting.

Like his father Phil Simms, a two-time Super Bowl champion and long time broadcaster for CBS, Chris Simms followed his old man’s footsteps. Originally, Chris Simms was hired by Fox Sports’ as a color commentator for college football and eventually joined Bleacher Report.

After two years at CBS (2014-16), Simms went to NBC where he was a studio analyst for Notre Dame football and was a personality on NBC Sports Radio. Once he left Bleacher Report in 2019, he was full-time at NBC.

Simms is a co-host of ProFootballTalk Live with Florio as of this report. Now that he is out at Football Night in America, it remains to be seen what his role will be at the network moving forward. It is likely he’ll stay on that role as Deitsch alluded to Simms making the announcement about FNIA himself.