Drew Brees has not played in the NFL since he hung up his cleats after the 2020 season. But he reportedly came close to a comeback in 2025 at the tender age of 47. Drew Brees reportedly considered unretiring in 2025 to help out the BroncosGettyOn Monday night, ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter revealed that the Hall of Fame quarterback considered coming out of retirement to help out the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship. Of course, in the Divisional Round of the 2025 NFL post-season, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix suffered an ankle fracture in the latter stages of the win over the Buffalo Bills to send them to the AFC Championship game. This saw Jarrett Stidham make his first start of the season in what proved to be a 10-7 defeat to the New England Patriots in a frosty encounter. “Here’s the untold story about Bo Nix’s ankle injury,” Schefter revealed on Monday Night Countdown. “A couple of days after that injury happened, then then-Broncos assistant coach 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 he felt, and when he worked out, his wrist was bothering him. “The interesting part about this was [Broncos head coach] Sean Payton didn’t even know about this until the offseason,” Schefter continued.“And when he heard that Lombardi and Carmichael were talking to Brees about coming back, he thought they were talking about December 2021 when Jameis Winston was hurt and Trevor Siemian and Taysom Hill were on the COVID list, and the Saints had to start Ian Book. ” … But if Brees had felt up to it, he might have come back. And he did drop a hint in February on the New Heights Podcast saying he did have an opportunity to come back, but he didn’t want to talk about it beyond that to Jason and Travis [Kelce].”Schefter also went on to explain how when Payton learned that his assistants had approached Brees, he was equally “fascinated and flabbergasted.”Nix suffered an ankle fracture in the Broncos’ win over the Bills in last season’s playoffsGettyNFL rules would have prevented Brees from returningGettyThe Monday Night Countdown crew were listening to this story with their jaws dropped, unable to imagine a world where Brees returned to the gridiron at any point last season. Should he have returned, he would have been the second legendary QB to announce his unretirement, following Phillip Rivers. The 44-year-old came out of retirement after three seasons away mid-way through the season to help his former team Indianapolis Colts when they were in dire need of a veteran signal caller to help boost their playoff bid. Would the NFL have allowed Brees to return? Whilst the idea of Brees’ – who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this past summer – return would have been exciting, it was also logistically impossible. Per NFL rules, a retired player must return by the Tuesday after Week 13 in any given season if he is to be eligible. However, Brees was – and still remains – on the Saints’ reserve-retired list, meaning that the Saints would have had to have released him from this list for him to be able to even hit waivers and then wind up in Denver. Questions have also be raised about whether Carmichael and Lombardi speaking to Brees without the Saints’ permission would be considered as tampering – which could yet still be subject to an investigation by the league. Although Brees did not return to the NFL in a playing capacity, he has just begun his new role with FOX as an analyst, though his season debut in the booth was met with mixed reviews.Join talkSPORT’s dedicated US Sports YouTube channel The S* Word every Tuesday and Thursday for our brand new NFL shows.On Tuesdays, Will Gavin and US senior reporter Brian T. Smith will debate the biggest talking points from the NFL weekend, while on Thursdays Efe Obada joins the crew to talk to players past and present and break down what to look for across the league.