Drew Brees has changed the story around his brief flirtation with the Denver Broncos, and this version puts the former quarterback at the center of it.
On SiriusXM’s “Let’s Go” podcast with Jim Gray, Brees said he was the one who reached out to former Broncos assistants Pete Carmichael and Joe Lombardi, not the other way around. That directly contradicts the earlier reporting that Carmichael and Lombardi contacted him after Denver lost Bo Nix to a season-ending ankle injury in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
Brees laid out the timeline in detail on the podcast. He said the idea hit him right after he received news of his Hall of Fame selection on Monday, January 19, the day after the Divisional Round.
While he was with Jim Porter, the Hall of Fame president, and Dan Fouts was telling him he was in the Hall of Fame, Brees said he joked to Porter, “Well, I guess this means I can't go back and play for the Broncos this week.” Porter’s response, according to Brees, was, “Actually, you can do whatever you want.”
Porter then told him voting had already been done and he was in.
Brees said that was the moment he “flipped the switch.” He said he immediately texted Carmichael and Lombardi, calling them “my OC and quarterback coach with the Saints,” and asked, “You guys need me this week?”
Brees said he added, “I might be able to be ready.” According to him, the response came quickly: “Are you serious?
We'll go down and tell Sean [Payton] right now.” Brees then said he stopped to take one more day before trying to see if a comeback was realistic.
The next morning, Brees said, he tested it out with his 13-year-old son catching passes in the backyard. The verdict was not encouraging.
“But no, it wasn't going to happen,” he said. Brees added that the right side simply wasn’t working, though he believed the left side inside the 20 could have been effective.
He also said, “my right wrist, right shoulder wouldn't allow it to happen,” though he admitted, “But did I think about it? Absolutely.
1000%. I would've loved to come back and play for the Broncos in the AFC Championship game, get my coach and a bunch of the other guys that I know in that organization, the Penner family, to the Super Bowl.
Would've loved it.”
The reason the back-and-forth mattered is simple: Brees was still on the New Orleans Saints’ reserve/retired list, so if the Broncos had been the ones to initiate contact, it could have raised tampering questions. If Brees was the one who made the first move, the issue looks very different. The NFL declined to comment.
Sean Payton had already shifted the narrative when asked about the contact, saying it was Brees who reached out. Now Brees has said the same thing himself, about a week after the initial reports.
In the end, none of it changed the Broncos’ season. With Brees unable to play, Denver turned to Jarrett Stidham, who had two costly turnovers in a 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots. Stidham is now back with the club as its primary backup quarterback for the 2026 season.
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