The Broncos were in a desperate spot after Bo Nix went down in the AFC Divisional Round, and according to Adam Schefter, they at least explored one stunning possibility: Drew Brees.
Nix broke his ankle on the second-to-last play of Denver’s win over the Buffalo Bills, right before the Broncos lined up for the game-winning field goal that sent them to the AFC Championship Game. The injury hit like a gut punch, and Denver’s follow-up plan with Jarrett Stidham didn’t get the job done the next week.
Then came the bombshell Schefter shared during the Monday Night Football pregame show. He said Pete Carmichael and Joe Lombardi, both longtime Sean Payton assistants and former Broncos coaches, privately reached out to Brees to see whether he might come out of retirement and play for Denver in the title game.
“ESPN sources: Hall-of-Fame QB Drew Brees mulled playing for the Denver Broncos in last season’s AFC Championship game. https://t.co/SfsBCUPjLz”
Brees ultimately passed because of discomfort in his wrist, so the reunion never happened. Still, the mere fact that the Broncos checked into the idea says plenty about how chaotic the situation was once Nix was lost. With the most important position in football suddenly in flux, Denver likely had plenty of names on the table.
The Brees angle made sense because of his history with Payton. The two built Hall of Fame careers together with the New Orleans Saints from 2006-2020, and Brees would have been an enormous long shot at 47 years old. Even so, the fact that he worked out at least suggests he seriously entertained the possibility.
Brees closed his NFL career with six straight seasons of a 100-plus passer rating over his final six years. Over 15 seasons with the Saints, he threw 491 touchdown passes, piled up 142 wins and finished with 68,010 passing yards.
That Saints run also included a Super Bowl victory over Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts in the 2009 season, one of the signature achievements of the Payton-Brees partnership that helped define some of the league’s best offenses.
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