Sean Payton and Drew Brees have conflicting stories about Broncos' contact

Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his head coach Sean Payton have given conflicting accounts concerning a potential contact between the Denver Broncos and Brees during the 2026 NFL playoffs. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, former Broncos coaches Joe Lombardi and Pete Carmichael reached out to Brees about possibly playing for them during the NFC Championship game after Bo Nix suffered an ankle injury in the divisional round of the playoffs in January.

Brees confirmed Schefter's report, telling Ed Werder that he participated in a throwing workout following their contact, which revealed he lacked the necessary throwing velocity to play due to previous shoulder and wrist injuries.

When head coach Sean Payton joined a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, he claimed that Brees had initiated the contact with Lombardi and Carmichael, rather than vice versa. However, Payton also stated that he was unaware of the communication until he attended the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony for Brees in August.

This discrepancy leaves open the possibility that either Payton made an error in his account, or one of the parties involved has inaccurate information. It could be a simple misunderstanding about who made the initial contact, but ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio suspects that Payton may have intentionally changed the narrative to prevent potential tampering charges, as Brees was on the reserve/retired list with the New Orleans Saints at the time.

Regardless of the reason behind the conflicting stories, the discrepancy between Payton's account and Schefter's reporting or Brees' own statement raises questions about the truthfulness of the coach's narrative.