The Denver Broncos reached out to Drew Brees about coming out of retirement for an NFL playoff game. That’s Adam Schefter’s story, and he’s sticking to it.

Schefter dropped the surprising report before the first Monday Night Football game of the season featuring the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs, revealing the Broncos checked on Brees ahead of their 2026 AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots this past January.

It’s hard to fathom Brees playing one of the biggest games of his life after retiring for five years. But the Indianapolis Colts had just lured Philip Rivers back from five years of retirement; the Broncos were now in dire need of a quarterback after Bo Nix suffered a fractured right ankle during the Divisional Round of the playoffs, and Brees has a deep connection to Sean Payton and Denver’s coaching staff. All of a sudden, gauging his interest in playing one, or hopefully two, more games makes sense, as crazy as the idea was.

Still, not everyone believed the news. Schefter joined ESPN Radio’s Unsportsmanlike with Evan Cohen, Chris Canty, and Michelle Smallmon, where he shared some of the pushback he received after reporting Denver’s interest in Brees.

– Drew Brees mulled playing for the Denver Broncos in last season’s AFC Championship game?

– Aaron Donald BACK for MNF? @AdamSchefter joined us during Hour 3, brought to us by @ZipRecruiter https://t.co/oBLod2oNEC pic.twitter.com/xiA1LqsokL

— UNSPORTSMANLIKE (@UnSportsESPN) September 15, 2026

“People could say what they want, ‘not realistic, come on, not happening.’ I’m just telling you, that’s what happened,” Schefter insisted. “Now you could decide for yourself how viable that was or wasn’t.”

Cohen questioned how anyone could debate the story, wondering who was arguing with Schefter over his Brees report.

“I took some comments here: ‘Come on, why is this coming out now?’ Well, it’s coming out now because Bo Nix is making his return and their season is kicking off, and here’s an interesting scenario behind the scenes that was going on from last January that we didn’t know about,” Schefter said.

Schefter’s report also aligns with what Brees said earlier this year during an appearance on New Heights. When Jason Kelce cited Philip Rivers coming out of retirement and asked Brees whether he received a call from the Broncos in the wake of Bo Nix’s injury, he didn’t deny their interest. Brees admitted “there was a moment this year” when he thought there was a chance he would play that week, presumably the AFC Championship Game. But after a quick workout, Brees quickly realized his body wasn’t up the task, even though his heart and mind may have been. Brees told this story on New Heights in February. Somehow, it got largely overlooked until Schefter reported it this week.

As @AdamSchefter just mentioned, the last time the Broncos took the field their QB was almost Drew Brees pic.twitter.com/doEQGIwO75

— New Heights (@newheightshow) September 14, 2026

“It was a year in which Philip Rivers already came back, nobody was expecting that, and obviously Drew Brees saw that, the NFL saw that, and so, people’s imaginations probably run wild,” Schefter continued. “Tom Brady talked about how there was a team that reached out to him. I guarantee you at some point in time there might have been a team that reached out to Peyton Manning…I’ll bet you most great quarterbacks have gotten calls at some point after they were done.”

Now the question is whether this becomes a trend. Because if Philip Rivers did it, Drew Brees considered it, and Cam Newton offered it, who is the next quarterback to take a call or pitch themselves for a possible comeback story?