The Denver Broncos 2025 season felt like a total dream, until it wasn't. What started out as an iffy 1-2 turn with two last-second losses turned into an 11-game winning streak, a 14-3 regular season, and the top seed in the AFC playoffs.
And after the awesome takedown of the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Round, a Super Bowl berth felt likely, and it did still feel like a dream come true. Obviously, Bo Nix's broken ankle may end up going down as one of the biggest 'what ifs' in the history of the team if the Broncos aren't able to win it all in the Nix era.
But even before that unfortunate ending, head coach Sean Payton was coming off a so-so 2023 season, his first with the Broncos. Denver had gotten to 8-9 on the season, which was an obvious improvement over the team's 5-12 season the year before. After the season, though, Payton offered up a flat-out unthinkable proposal that would have turned into one of the NFL's most unprecedented events.
Sean Payton presented an unthinkable proposal following the 2023 season for the Denver Broncos
In a lengthy 'tell-all' by ESPN's Seth Wickersham, one thing that stood out was this - following the 2023 season, when former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was let go by the team, Payton apparently considered a proposal to bring Belichick himself aboard as the team's head coach in order for the all-time great to secure enough wins to become the all-time leader:
Per @SethWickersham: When Bill Belichick and the Patriots divorced in 2024, Sean Payton considered presenting Broncos owner Greg Penner a proposal for the ages: Hire Belichick as head coach until he reached 15 wins, enough to break Don Shula's career record of 347. Payton would… https://t.co/BFdqvKjxop
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 7, 2026
Yes, you are actually reading this. Between regular season and the playoffs, Belichick has 333 total wins. Don Shula has 347, so Belichick would need 15 more. With Belichick now coaching at the collegiate level, though, it feels unlikely that he could enjoy a return to the NFL.
Belichick does have the most playoff wins of all-time, with 31. Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is right behind him with 28, though. As you can see, the math would have been on Belichick's side in the unlikely event that this sort of thing could have been pulled off. The Broncos ended up winning 10 games in the 2024 season, and if this situation ended up happening, there would have been a possibility that a Belichick-led Broncos team with Payton running the show on offense could have won more than 10 regular season games.
And that could have spilled into the playoffs, too. The Broncos, in total, have won 25 games since the start of the 2024 season. The math would have worked out for the former Patriots head coach, but Payton was clearly thinking a bit too far here.
While pulling off that type of move would not have been impossible, it would have been close to it. This does go to show you just how much respect Payton has for Belichick, and Payton does appear to be someone who emits a strong, almost arrogant persona, so Payton even considering this is noteworthy.
But just imagine for a second if this did get pulled off, and Payton handed the keys to Belichick for a couple of seasons...
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