Bill Belichick’s path toward Don Shula’s all-time wins record nearly took one of the strangest turns the NFL has seen in years.
After his divorce from the New England Patriots in 2024, Sean Payton mulled a proposal for Broncos owner Greg Penner that would have brought Belichick to Denver as head coach for one purpose: get him the 15 wins needed to pass Shula’s career mark of 347. Under the plan, Payton would have stepped down temporarily to assistant head coach, taken over the offense, and then returned to the top job once Belichick became the league’s all-time wins leader.
Seth Wickersham, via Adam Schefter, laid out the idea in a detailed look at the Broncos’ postseason run. In the end, the arrangement never got off the ground.
“When Bill Belichick and the Patriots divorced in 2024, Sean Payton considered presenting Broncos owner Greg Penner a proposal for the ages: Hire Belichick as head coach until he reached 15 wins, enough to break Don Shula’s career record of 347. Payton would temporarily step down to assistant head coach and run the offense, then move back after Belichick became the all-time leader.
In the end, it was too complicated - and maybe too fanciful.”
The notion says plenty about the respect Belichick still carries around the league. Even after his exit from New England, he remained a central figure in NFL conversations, with plenty of attention on whether another head coaching opportunity would come his way soon.
The proposal also showed how far some people in the game were willing to go to help create a historic moment. Payton’s willingness to slide aside, even briefly, stood out as a strikingly unconventional move. The Broncos, though, moved on without ever putting that temporary setup in place.
Belichick’s chase for the record remains one of the league’s lingering storylines, and this near-miss only adds another unusual chapter to a career already packed with them.
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