NFL Open Thread: Old Man Rivers edition
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With Daniel Jones out for the year, Anthony Richardson suffering from some combination of freak orbital injury and massive bust-itis, and Riley Leonard apparently also hurt and also Riley Leonard, it has come to this in Indianapolis:
The Indianapolis Colts will start 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, a league source told The Athletic. Rookie sixth-round pick Riley Leonard will be his backup.
On Wednesday, Rivers ended his nearly half-decade retirement and officially signed with the Colts’ practice squad. Now slated to start on Sunday, the eight-time Pro Bowler will try to push Indianapolis (8-5) one win closer to the playoffs — just like when he steered the Colts to the postseason during his last season in 2020.
The Colts elevated Rivers to the 53-man roster Saturday — a requirement for him to be eligible to start Sunday.
“(It’s) a coach that I love and an organization that I really enjoyed being with,” Rivers said Wednesday, explaining his decision to return to Indianapolis and play for Colts coach Shane Steichen, whom he previously worked alongside with the Chargers. “(Former Colts owner Jim) Irsay believing in me in that year in 2020 when it didn’t go so good in 2019 (meant a lot). And shoot, the teammates that I was able to play with, shoot, 14 of them are still here. Training room’s the same. PR guys are the same. Equipment room’s the same. And they wanted me, and I try to keep it as simple as that.”
Rivers and Leonard took first-team reps throughout the week, Steichen said Friday, but Steichen noted earlier in the week that the team changed its practice schedule to accommodate Rivers’ return. Initially, the Colts were only supposed to have a walkthrough on Wednesday, which had been the case the previous two weeks, before practicing Thursday and Friday.
After the Colts struck a deal with Rivers, they updated their schedule to include a Wednesday practice, Steichen said, partly because they wanted to help Rivers get up to speed with a full three-practice week. Rivers was the first quarterback to take snaps in most of the drills during the portions of practice that were open to the media. Leonard was next in line, with third-stringer Brett Rypien behind him.
Steichen said his team would continue weighing its QB decision Friday, but he praised Rivers after completing his first week of NFL practice in almost five years. Asked to evaluate Rivers’ performance, Steichen noted he looked “pretty good” as he nears his 241st consecutive start at quarterback, which — as crazy as it sounds — would resume the longest active streak in the NFL and the second-longest streak in league history.
It’s true both that given the other options a 44-year-old who last played during the first Trump administration is probably the best current option and that starting a 44-year-old who last played during the first Trump administration against a ferocious Seattle defense after a few practices is unlikely to end well. You have to respect Rivers resetting his Hall of Fame clock* to do this in a way, but it all epitomizes how badly the Colts have been flailing at the position since Andrew Luck retired. And those two first rounders the Colts save up for Sauce Gardner are probably ones Ballard would like to have back.
*Let me say this: he was better than Eli Manning.