Sean Payton is going to be the one putting the gold jacket moment into words. The former New Orleans Saints head coach has been announced as the presenter for Drew Brees at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, reuniting the sport’s most decorated quarterback-coach duo one more time on a Canton stage.
Brees will officially be inducted as part of the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, with the enshrinement set for Aug. 8 in Canton, Ohio. According to Canal Street Chronicles, Payton was recently confirmed as the presenter for No. 9, a role reserved for the person an inductee chooses to introduce them on one of football’s biggest nights.
It’s a fitting pairing. Payton recruited Brees to New Orleans in 2006, a year after Hurricane Katrina gutted the city and the franchise alike. The Saints were coming off a 3-13 season and hadn’t played a home game in the Superdome in over a year. Brees arrived off a serious shoulder injury nobody was certain would fully heal. Neither had much to prove wrong about themselves. Together, they proved plenty wrong about everyone else.
"I can't believe you just did that" 🥹@DrewBrees asks @SeanPayton to present him at the @ProFootballHOF
🎥: @GregBensel pic.twitter.com/GKJniyiJLj
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) July 30, 2026
A Partnership Built From the Ground Up
The numbers still hold up. Brees posted a 144-85 record with Payton as his head coach across regular season and postseason play, a mark that ties the pair for second all-time among quarterback-coach duos in NFL history, according to the team’s own release on his induction. Brees’ overall record as a Saints starter, 151-94, makes him the winningest quarterback in franchise history.
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Regular season + postseason record (Saints) | 151-94 |
| Record with Payton as head coach | 144-85 |
| Career passing yards | 80,358 |
| Career touchdown passes | 571 |
| Career completion percentage | 67.7% |
| Pro Bowl selections | 13 |
By 2009, that partnership had turned into a machine. The Saints averaged nearly 40 points a game that season, finished 13-3, and didn’t lose until the final stretch of the year. Wins over Arizona and Minnesota sent them to Miami, where they beat Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts for the franchise’s only Super Bowl title. It remains the only Super Bowl appearance either man has made with New Orleans.
The Announcement and What It Means
Brees was named to the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 on Feb. 5, becoming, per the Saints’ official announcement, the franchise’s first-ever first-ballot selection. The news came down during NFL Honors in San Francisco, and Payton, now the head coach of the Denver Broncos, reacted almost immediately.
Payton posted on X shortly after the announcement, writing that Brees “set a bar so high for all of us” and calling him “OUR 1st Ballot HOF QB,” according to Heavy.com. Brees also received a congratulatory call from Payton that night, along with calls from Saints owner Gayle Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis. “Those are three incredibly influential people in my life,” Brees said, according to NOLA.com. “Tonight would not have been possible without them.”
Payton being tapped as presenter formalizes what was already obvious about their bond. He’s since moved on to Denver, but his football identity is still tangled up with what he and Brees built in New Orleans: an offense defined by precision, tempo and a quarterback who rarely blinked in the fourth quarter.
What Comes Next
The enshrinement itself is still months away. Brees will be inducted alongside a class that includes Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri and Roger Craig, with the ceremony taking place at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on Aug. 8. Presenter speeches are typically among the most personal moments of the weekend, and given the history between these two, Payton’s remarks are likely to draw plenty of attention from Saints fans still nostalgic for that era.
Nothing else about the ceremony logistics has been finalized publicly. This piece will be updated if additional details on the enshrinement weekend schedule are confirmed.
