Philip Rivers returning to the Indianapolis Colts after four years away from football was one of the more random stories of the 2025 NFL season. Drew Brees recently revealed that he almost returned to the game this season as well. The New Orleans Saints and LA Chargers were set at quarterback, so unlike Rivers, Brees wouldn't have returned to one of his former teams.
Trying to pull quarterbacks out of retirement is apparently a thing now. Rivers came back. Brees was in conversations to return. Teams even reportedly reached out to Derek Carr about a return.
Brees didn't reveal what team it was, though. With the Colts eventually going with Rivers, you'd have to imagine the Colts are on the shortlist of teams it could be. The Bengals were one of the teams that it was said was interested in Carr, so they'd make sense too.
Drew Brees even started to prepare for the comeback until...
Brees kept the details light, but he said, "something happened to where I thought I might play that week." After 4 years on the shelf, you don't just think you might play the upcoming Sunday without prior conversations. Brees didn't give a timeline, so it's hard to narrow down who that team was. It's clear though it was something he had discussed lightly through the season.
When it became a real thing, Brees exchanged the tequila for water and got to throwing with his son. He was ready for the moment, but his body wasn't. Brees proclaimed he didn't have the power to break a glass from 10 feet away.
Brees maintains that his body feels great and his mind unsurprisingly still works at a high level. The shoulder and wrist kept him from making that comeback. Even further than that, Brees believes he'd still be playing now if it weren't for those two injuries.
Had he returned, Brees would have also restarted his Hall of Fame clock. It's one thing for Rivers to do it, because his resume is much less concrete. There's a good chance he wouldn't have made it first ballot anyway. Still, a return means you have to be retired for 5 more years before you're Hall of Fame eligible. Instead of going in in 2026, Brees would have been a 2031 inductee. He still would be first ballot, technically, but he would have been 10 years removed from his playing days instead of five.