NFL insider addresses possibility of Nick Saban returning to coaching

Last week, a rumor that Nick Saban could return to coaching spread like wildfire after ESPN’s Greg McElroy reported that a “very much in the know person” told him it was possible. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show on Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer weighed in on the popular rumor.

“I would say that maybe there’s an itch that he wants to scratch, or he wants to at least explore scratching in the NFL,” Breer said. “Urban Meyer was on the air somewhere. I think he was with Colin [Cowherd], or someone like that, and he said something along the lines of, ‘I don’t think he’ll do it in college because of all of the reasons that he left college football in the first place, but I could see him doing it in the NFL.’

“I think the possibility exists that maybe he looks at it and says, ‘If there is a situation where I can win quickly, where there’s a quarterback — I don’t feel completely satisfied with what happened in Miami 20 years ago.’ Every time he talks about the NFL, he’ll bring up the Miami doctors and their assessment of [Drew] Brees. I mean, the people were picking them to go to the Super Bowl in 2006, which was his last year in Miami.”

In Saban’s first year at the helm of the Miami Dolphins in 2006, he guided the team to a 9-7 record and narrowly missed the playoffs. The Dolphins were expected to be one of the best teams in the NFL in 2007, but they had a dilemma at quarterback.

The team considered picking up QB Drew Brees, who was dropped by the San Diego Chargers after suffering career-threatening shoulder injury. However, Miami doctors ultimately decided Brees wasn’t worth the risk and the Dolphins traded for QB Daunte Culpepper instead.

Culpepper was coming off a knee injury himself and didn’t fully recover before the season. Culpepper was benched after the Dolphins’ fourth game, and the team posted a 6-10 record. Saban was the head coach at Alabama the next season and the rest is history.

Alas, fans have often wondered what would’ve happened if the Dolphins had picked up Brees. Breer believes Saban has asked that question as well, and could want another shot at succeeding in the NFL.

“The same way we’ve always asked those questions, does he ask that question of himself, especially when he’s looking at it and saying, ‘The college game’s a little too complicated right now. There are a lot of elements that I just don’t want to deal with. But if I go to the NFL, I could just focus on coaching football, and if I have a veteran team with an established quarterback, I could maybe step in and be a difference maker,'” Breer said.

“… It’d be interesting to see how he would apply that to the NFL, I don’t know what his appetite is for right now, but I certainly think that if he made himself available there would probably be a team or two out there that would be interested in looking at bringing him in here in five or six months from now.”