Bill Belichick's split from the Patriots after the 2023 season left one of the biggest questions in football hanging in the air: was that really it for the greatest coach of his generation, 15 wins shy of the all-time record? According to a new Seth Wickersham report relayed by Adam Schefter, Sean Payton actually cooked up a plan to make sure it wasn't.
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 temporarily step down to assistant head coach and run the offense, then move back after Belichick became the all-time leader. In the end, it was too complicated -- and maybe too fanciful.
The idea, per the report: Payton would go to Penner and propose hiring Belichick as Broncos head coach on a temporary basis, just long enough to rack up the 15 wins needed to pass Don Shula's career mark of 347. Payton himself would step down to assistant head coach and run the offense in the meantime, then slide back into the top job once Belichick made history. It's the kind of scheme that only makes sense between two guys who've known each other since their days on Bill Parcells' coaching tree.
It never got past the idea stage. Payton reportedly decided the plan was too complicated, and maybe too fanciful, to actually run past Penner. No formal ask ever happened. Which, honestly, checks out the moment you think about the logistics: benching yourself as a sitting NFL head coach so a rival legend can borrow your job for a franchise-record chase is not exactly a normal front-office memo.
The timing makes the whole thing feel like even more of a what-if now. Belichick didn't sit around waiting for an NFL lifeline. He landed at North Carolina, taking over the Tar Heels program on a multi-year deal, effectively closing the door on ever getting those 15 wins at the pro level. Shula's record, which has stood since 1995, isn't going anywhere for a while.
For Payton, it's a wild footnote to a Broncos tenure that's already been defined by him doing things his own way, from the quarterback overhaul to the culture reset in Denver. That he was willing to consider temporarily giving up his own head coaching chair just to help an old colleague chase history says a lot about how much respect still exists at the top of the coaching fraternity, even between two guys who could've been trading job openings with each other. It also says a lot about how little that respect matters once the roster and the record book get involved, since the plan died in Payton's own head before it ever reached Penner's desk.
Whether this leaks now because Wickersham was working on a bigger Payton profile or because it's just too good a story to sit on, it's the rare front-office anecdote that makes both coaches look better for it. Payton comes off as generous enough to float giving up power for a friend's legacy; Belichick comes off as a guy still worth building an entire coaching change around, 2 years and one college job later.