The Denver Broncos were put in an extremely difficult position when Bo Nix fractured his ankle late in their AFC Divisional Round win over the Buffalo Bills, forcing backup Jarrett Stidham to make his first start of the season in the AFC Championship Game.
We know that things didn’t go that well for Stidham and the Broncos, who fell 10-7 at home in the snow. However, what we recently learned thanks to ESPN insider Adam Schefter was that Denver actually almost lured Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees out of retirement to suit up against the New England Patriots instead. Crazy enough, head coach Sean Payton didn’t even know about it.
“Here’s the untold story behind Bo Nix’s fractured ankle. A couple days after that injury happened, the then-Broncos assistant coaches Pete Carmichael and Joe Lombardi privately reached out to Drew Brees to gauge his interest in coming in that week, playing for the team and potentially playing in the AFC Championship Game. Brees said he wanted to work out, see how it felt, and when he felt he worked out, his wrist was bothering him.
Now, the interesting part about this was Sean Payton didn’t even know about this until the offseason. When he heard that Lombardi and Carmichael were talking to Brees about coming back, he thought they were talking about December 2021. Payton didn’t find out about it until the offseason, but it was a plan that Carmichael and Lombardi spoke about with Brees, and if Brees had felt up to it, he might have come back,”
The now-47-year-old Brees last played during the 2020 season and officially retired from the NFL in March 2021.
Stidham wound up going 17-of-31 for 133 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception in the loss. Brees, of course, ultimately didn’t give it a go because of wrist soreness, but it is absolutely fascinating to think about how different things could have been had one of the all-time greats come back almost five years after calling it a career.
