Tony Romo chose the broadcast booth over playing for the Jets.

The former Cowboys quarterback said Wednesday that the Jets were among his options if he was going to continue playing, but working for CBS was a better opportunity.

“I took a look at them,” he said, according to NJ.com. “I’m not going to say if they were in the final four. But I did take a look. I went through a lot of teams. There was a lot of discussion. I had narrowed the focus to about four teams. From there, obviously, I made the decision to come to CBS. I felt like the opportunity was just too big to pass up.”

The 37-year-old retired and joined CBS after considering playing for another team. The Jets signed veteran Josh McCown to a one-year deal and officially named him the starter Monday.

While many people believe the Jets are destined for a historically bad season, Romo gave a sliver of optimism.

“They can be less bad [than people think],” Romo said. “That [McCown starting] is in the best interest of the team. It’s a good thing for them, to send the message to everybody: We’re trying to win in Week 1 and this season. The NFL is a very finite thing between being good and bad. They have some pieces. They’re a little bit away.”

The expectation is that McCown and the first-team offense will play Thursday night against the Eagles. McCown has played just one series during the preseason and that came Aug. 12 against the Titans. If he does not play against the Eagles, that would be a full month since his last appearance when the Jets open the season against the Bills on Sept. 10.

Jets coach Todd Bowles has refused to say whether McCown is starting Thursday, but it sounds like McCown will get to shake the rust off.

“I don’t think of anything as far as Josh playing,” Bowles said. “I think of it as a team standpoint. If the team needs to work on something, we work on it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for Thursday, whether its next week, whether its two weeks from now, it doesn’t matter. If we need to work on stuff, we work on it.”

Bryce Petty’s status remained up in the air this week. He suffered an MCL sprain in his left knee on Saturday against the Giants, but was able to do limited activity in practice on Monday and Tuesday.