Move over, Philip Rivers.
The quarterback shocked the NFL world last season when he came out of retirement at age 44 to join the Colts for three games at the end of the 2025 season. But he was nearly one-upped just a few weeks later, according to an ESPN report.
After Broncos quarterback Bo Nix fractured his ankle in a Divisional Round win over the Patriots last January, Denver was in talks with Saints legend Drew Brees to take over for the AFC Championship, Adam Schefter reported.
Brees, who turned 47 two days before Nix’s injury, reportedly had talks with Denver’s then-offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and offensive assistant Pete Carmichael — both of whom coached him with the Saints — about being ready to face the Patriots the following Sunday.
But five years to the day after his final snap on Jan. 17, 2021, Brees’ wrist didn’t hold up enough to let the comeback happen.
Instead of having a Hall of Famer under center, the Broncos turned to Jarrett Stidham, who threw 133 yards and a touchdown in Denver’s 10-7 loss to New England.
Would they have been better off with a not-quite-ready Brees?
As he told the “New Heights” podcast in February, “I wouldn’t have been able to break that glass 10 feet away.” Though he didn’t name a team, Brees divulged details of a near comeback in a guest appearance on the Kelce brothers’ show seven months ago.
“There was a moment this year … something happened where I thought there might be a chance I would play that week,” Brees said. “I started thinking about going to bed early and getting up the next day and getting my body nice and loose and going out and throwing to see if I could even pull it off.”
But after tossing to his son, the wrist and shoulder just weren’t working for him, he said.
“I really think I’d still be playing if the shoulder and the wrist wouldn’t have started letting me down,” said Brees, now an NFL analyst for Fox.
According to Schefter, Broncos coach Sean Payton, who also coached Brees for 14 seasons, wasn’t privy to the initial conversation and didn’t even know Lombardi and Carmichael had courted Brees until the offseason.
When he found out, he was “both fascinated and flabbergasted.” Payton and Brees discussed it further this summer, when Payton presented his former quarterback for induction at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Had Brees come back for the game this January, it would have reset his Hall of Fame clock. Players can’t be inducted until five years after their careers conclude.
