The Colts have signed Philip Rivers to their practice squad, so it looks like his name will have to be scratched from next year's Hall of Fame ballot. It would have been his first year of eligibility, with him retiring after the 2020 season. Now he might be starting on Sunday.
How have we come to this? Just a few weeks back, the Colts were 8-2, looking like the potential No. 1 seed in the AFC, shipping off 2 first-round picks to bring in Sauce Gardner to aid a Super Bowl run.
Since that time, Daniel Jones tore his Achilles; he's out for the year. Indy's other potential starter at the beginning of the year, Anthony Richardson, suffered an eye injury during pregame warmups and landed on IR; he hasn't been cleared to return (and it's not certain the Colts would want him anyway). Sixth-round rookie Riley Leonard picked up a knee injury after replacing Jones last week and won't necessarily be available (and again, the team might have been looking for other options regardless).
Unfortunately, slightly less wizened veterans like Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston are on other rosters, and the trade deadline came and went a month ago, so a 44-year-old who retired five years ago is the best the Colts could come up with. (Perhaps they called one of the Manning brothers, as well.) Head Coach Shane Steichen worked with Rivers back in 2019 with the Chargers; he was the OC there in Rivers' final year with the team. And Rivers might still have a Colts jersey lying around the house from his final year in the league, when he led the Colts to an 11-5 record and playoff spot, losing 27-24 to the Bills.
Only the Colts know if Rivers has kept in shape (if memory serves he has a lot of kids to help keep him active), but evidently they saw enough from his tryout yesterday to sign him. For our purposes, let's assume Rivers is roughly as he was in his final year in the league, albeit older.
Back in 202o, Rivers averaged 261 passing yards, with 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He took only 19 sacks. Credit to Rivers and the coaching staff for getting a pretty solid season out of him. If Steichen and Jim Bob Cooter can do the same, maybe this works out. On the other hand...
Even back then, Rivers was immobile. He "ran" for minus-8 yards that year, presumably from taking knees at the end of some of the Colts' wins. He'll be a sitting duck, most likely working out of the shotgun exclusively. That's bad for Jonathan Taylor, since there won't be a lot of mystery to the plays the offense is running.
Rivers never had a great arm; not at the end of his career, and not five years later. That's bad for Alec Pierce, who's been having a nice year hauling in bombs that Jones was hitting, and that take some time to develop (but now it's a quarterback who won't be moving much around the pocket). The ball is going to have to come out quick, maybe benefitting Tyler Warren and Josh Downs, at least in a PPR sense.
The other worrying thing is that the upcoming schedule is less than good. They're at Seattle this week, and the Seahawks rank 4th in sacks (41). Then San Francisco; not as good defensively this year, but better lately (solid in a current three-game win streak against the Cardinals, Panthers and Browns). They finish against the Jaguars (2nd in interceptions) and at Houston (6th in sacks).
About the best that can be said is that Rivers was a really good passer, so limited arm or mobility or know, maybe he'll be able to generate some numbers. Looking at his final year in the league, he'd grade out pretty well against the league's current starting quarterbacks -- yards per game, yards per attempt, passer rating, completion percentage. Table is sorted by passing yards per game.
| QUARTERBACK PASSING AND COVID YEAR RIVERS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int | Y/A | Y/G | Rate |
| Dak Prescott | 69.0 | 3637 | 26 | 10 | 7.5 | 279.8 | 100.2 |
| Drake Maye | 71.5 | 3412 | 23 | 6 | 8.8 | 262.5 | 111.9 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 63.1 | 3398 | 22 | 10 | 7.2 | 261.4 | 91.2 |
| Philip Rivers (2020) | 68.0 | 4169 | 24 | 11 | 7.7 | 260.6 | 97.0 |
| Matthew Stafford | 66.7 | 3354 | 35 | 4 | 7.8 | 258.0 | 113.1 |
| Jared Goff | 70.1 | 3334 | 26 | 5 | 8.1 | 256.5 | 110.2 |
| Jacoby Brissett | 66.2 | 2459 | 15 | 5 | 7.1 | 245.9 | 95.3 |
| Joe Flacco | 60.2 | 2451 | 15 | 10 | 6.0 | 245.1 | 79.2 |
| Sam Darnold | 68.1 | 3162 | 22 | 11 | 8.9 | 243.2 | 103.8 |
| Daniel Jones | 68.0 | 3101 | 19 | 8 | 8.1 | 238.5 | 100.2 |
| Josh Allen | 70.1 | 3083 | 22 | 10 | 8.2 | 237.2 | 102.9 |
| Jordan Love | 67.1 | 3028 | 22 | 4 | 7.8 | 232.9 | 105.4 |
| Justin Herbert | 65.6 | 2981 | 22 | 11 | 7.1 | 229.3 | 92.7 |
| Bo Nix | 63.2 | 2954 | 19 | 9 | 6.3 | 227.2 | 86.4 |
| Caleb Williams | 57.8 | 2908 | 19 | 6 | 6.7 | 223.7 | 87.2 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 59.5 | 2880 | 18 | 11 | 6.8 | 221.5 | 83.3 |
| Michael Penix | 60.1 | 1982 | 9 | 3 | 7.2 | 220.2 | 88.5 |
| C.J. Stroud | 64.3 | 2181 | 12 | 6 | 7.1 | 218.1 | 90.0 |
| Jalen Hurts | 64.7 | 2754 | 19 | 6 | 7.2 | 211.8 | 96.0 |
| Baker Mayfield | 61.6 | 2722 | 20 | 6 | 6.5 | 209.4 | 90.6 |
| Lamar Jackson | 63.4 | 2060 | 16 | 5 | 7.9 | 206.0 | 100.0 |
| Geno Smith | 67.0 | 2648 | 16 | 14 | 6.7 | 203.7 | 84.5 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 65.4 | 2370 | 20 | 7 | 6.9 | 197.5 | 96.2 |
| Bryce Young | 63.4 | 2337 | 18 | 9 | 6.4 | 194.8 | 87.9 |
| Cam Ward | 59.1 | 2468 | 9 | 7 | 5.6 | 189.8 | 74.9 |
| Tua Tagovailoa | 66.9 | 2407 | 18 | 14 | 6.8 | 185.2 | 86.4 |
It's a Hail Mary by the Colts. Particularly given the matchup this week, things could go poorly, assuming Rivers starts.
But sometimes a Hail Mary gets completed. I didn't think Joe Flacco or Jacoby Brissett would do what they've been doing the past couple of years. Rivers may be 44, but he's still younger than Tom Brady when he retired. I'm not cutting ties with Colts receivers just yet. At the very least, it should be interesting.
--Andy Richardson