Ex-NFL coach Jason Garrett visits Broncos training camp

The Denver Broncos had a special guest at Thursday’s training camp, a former quarterback. Not John Elway. Not Peyton Manning.

Okay, okay, you already read the headline. It was Jason Garrett.

Garrett played quarterback in the NFL from 1989-2004, but many football fans today know him from his time as a coach. Garrett started his coaching career as a quarterbacks coach with the Dallas Cowboys in 2005 and later worked his way up to offensive coordinator and then head coach.

Dallas did not renew Garrett’s contract when it expired in 2020 and he went on to serve as an offensive coordinator with the New York Giants from 2020-2021. So is he now returning to league on Denver’s staff? Probably not.

Garrett was a quarterback with the Giants from 2000-’03, overlapping with then-New York offensive coordinator Sean Payton (2000-’02). Payton went on to coach on Dallas’ staff from 2003-’05 and Garrett joined the Cowboys in 2007, one year after Payton became head coach of the New Orleans Saints.

Garrett now works for NBC’s Sunday Night Football and while the Broncos do not have any initially scheduled SNF games this year, Thursday was likely an opportunity for Garrett to reconnect with an old friend and do some prep on Denver’s roster ahead of the 2024 season.