Philip Rivers' last game in NFL came with the Indianapolis Colts almost five years ago. When he walked off the field after a tough 27-24 AFC wild-card playoff loss to the Bills on Jan. 9, 2021, it seemed like the next important league call he would be answering would be getting entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026.
But five years later, Rivers took the Colts' offer to sign on the practice squad. The move comes on the heels of starter Daniel Jones being lost for the rest of the 2025 season with an Achilles' injury and both backups,
Riley Leonard (knee) and Anthony Richardson (eye) are hurt. Richardson isn't cleared to play in Week 15 vs. The Seahawks. It's iffy if Leonard, a second-year QB from Notre Dame, can even practice after relieving Jones in Sunday's Week 14 loss at the Jaguars.
Rivers, now 44, is the father of 10 and the grandfather to one. He just finished a 13-1 season run as a high school head coach for St. Michal Catholic in Fairhope, Ala., with his son Gunner starring as his QB.
So why the heck would he want to return to the NFL right before the holidays? There's plenty of reason why the Colts' transaction isn't good for either team or player, should Rivers be elevated to the active roster and start in Seattle on Sunday.
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- Why Anthony Richardson isn't available to start for Colts
Philip Rivers would be just taking lumps Jones would have taken
The Colts have been a feel-good turnaround story through this point of the regular season. Their playoff prospects, however, looked a lot better than they started 7-1 (losing only to the NFC-best Rams) to start the season against more favorable competition. But their overachieving early has been traded for a 1-4 fade to out of even a wild-card spot in the AFC.
The Colts lost to the Chiefs and Texans with limited offense coming off the bye with Jones healthy. They just lost to the Jaguars with mostly Leonard, but there's a fair chance the losing skid would still be three games with Jones.
Now the Colts get the Seahawks defense, a swarming unit for coach Mike Macdonald, a 10-3 in a more hostile road environment. Next up is another NFC West power, the 9-4 49ers, before the team must see the attack defenses of Jacksonville and Houston again.
Many good teams from the previous season have front-loaded schedules for the sake of creating the best TV matchups before the final month. The Colts, in their quest to finish better than 8-9 are backloaded and trending toward matching that record. An immobile pocket-limited Rivers won't help. Them save the season, especially when it's been easier for opponents to stop Jonathan Taylor and the Colts' running game of late.
The Colts are double-digit underdogs at Seattle. Rivers isn't changing that fact should he start. He would just be getting abused by a tough pass defense instead of a different, much younger Colts QB.
The Colts are showing even more desperation with GM Chris Ballard
Ballard was looking good to get off his hot seat Indy when Jones was playing so well to lead a healthy turnaround. Then came the promising blockbuster trade for cornerback Sauce Gardner. Now both Gardner and Jones are hurt and the team doesn't have first-round picks for the next two years.
Going after Rivers seems like a way to cut losses after going all in for this season and making a move for a notable player for only the sake of making a move. Indianapolis' potential freefall to well out of the playoff picture and not improving at all from 2025 won't look better because it's Rivers in there vs. Leonard or Brett Rypien.
Philip Rivers also might reset the clock for his call to the Hall
There's a fair hope Rivers would advance from semifinalist to be inducted and enshrined into Canton in the first ballot. But as Hall of Fame rules state, he just needs to be signed to the active roster to push his wait for a gold jacket and bronze bust back five years.
That might seem like just a delayed entry, but keep in mind future classes are about to get crowded with contemporary QBs who have just retired. Rivers might be then competing with say, potential soon-to-be Steelers retiree Aaron Rodgers to get in right away. Rivers' body of work says Hall, despite no Super Bowl rings, but returning for a month would keep him out of mind a little too long.
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The Colts may have closed the door for any type of Richardson return
The Colts could be just rolling with Rypien in Seattle, should Leonard not be available and wait to see Richardson back in action for the final few weeks. But just having Rivers on hand with Leonard and Richardson in the wake of losing Jones should tell Richardson that coach Shane Steichen would rather play a rusty QB out of retirement than give Richardson one last starting evaluation as Colts quarterback.
For teams desperate to revive their QB situation in 2026, Richardson looks like he will be made available, when he should at least be an option for them with Jones facing a long recovery timeline.
Shane Steichen's offense has a lot more issues than who's the QB
The Colts' offense has been predicated on Taylor having success in the rushing attack to open up the passing game all over the field, where tight end Tyler Warren and the coverage attention he draws are the big additions.
Taylor, since his 244-yard explosion vs. The Falcons in Berlin and the Colts' bye, has managed only 217 total during the three-game losing streak. He's been held to four yards or fewer per carry after having some massive scrimmage games early.
The Colts have a dependent QB situation. Jones was executing efficiently, but the system was lifting up to facilitate the passing game. Now teams are just taking away Taylor and there's no right one-dimensional response. Rivers was the quick, desperate fix based on his knowledge of Steichen's system well from several Chargers years together. He knows the playbook, but he will have the same kind of trouble making plays should Taylor get contained.
Seattle is No. 4 vs. The run. Jacksonville is No. 1 and Houston is No. 5. San Francisco, despite injuries, is No. 12. Not getting Taylor going will mean the QB struggles, too.
MORE: Updated NFL playoff picture entering Week 15
The Colts shouldn't be so handcuffed after the midseason trade deadline
There should be a special NFL exception that if your starting quarterback goes down with a season-ending injury beyond the trade deadline, you can open up communication for a possible trade to acquire someone at the position.
The bottom line, when Joe Flacco and Philip Rivers are older versions of Josh McCown and Ryan Fitzpatrick, the NFL doesn't have a good surplus of reserve QBs to save every depth chart. With Richardson also hurt, the Colts were pinned into a corner.
Let's blame the league on this one. The Colts should be able to go get anyone from Jameis Winston to Mac Jones, if the teams employing those viable top backups oblige and are willing to swing the deal. When a team needs to pull a five-year retiree into service because of consistent league-wide injury attrition, that should scream for a change in personnel acquisition policies.
MORE: Inside Philip Rivers' extensive family tree