Colts sign 44-year-old Philip Rivers after Daniel Jones injury
Indianapolis made a desperate deal to acquire 44-year-old Philip Rivers after losing Daniel Jones to a season-ending Achilles injury.
- The Indianapolis Colts have signed 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers to their practice squad.
- GM Chris Ballard recently traded cornerback Sauce Gardner and two first-round picks, hinting at a “win-now” approach.
- Signing Rivers highlighted the team’s lack of a reliable backup quarterback after going all-in at the trade deadline.
I’m not a poker player. Spades and hearts is my game. Probably Solitaire or Go Fish with the kids.
But I’ve seen enough coverage of Rounders and Casino Royale, games of luck and skill, on ESPN and other stations over the years to know that it’s best not to overplay your hand when you’re committed to the pot.
Unfortunately, the Indianapolis Colts’ decision to sign 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers to their practice squad on Tuesday appears to be a strong indication that the organization and longtime general manager Chris Ballard have done just that.
On some level, you have to feel for the Colts. Ballard appeared to inherit a full house when he took the job in 2017 – then-quarterback Andrew Luck looked like he was worth three aces by himself. But Indy suffered a huge blow when the injury-prone Luck shockingly retired two weeks before the 2019 season. Since then, Ballard and the team have pursued better players, and the Colts have languished outside the playoffs since Rivers last led them to the playoffs in 2020, his 17th and final NFL campaign.
Expectations for the team entering the 2025 season appear modest at best, and Ballard has diversified his QB options between Anthony Richardson (a tantalizingly talented but raw, inexperienced, inconsistent, and at times raw talent who was drafted fourth overall in the 2023 draft) and Daniel Jones, a reclamation project once seen as the future of the New York Giants.
Still, Jones was at the helm of Indianapolis’ offense and in the locker room, and the Colts started 7-1 and won the AFC South. That was enough to spur Ballard, typically a conservative roster designer who favors a draft-development-compensation-re-sign approach, to effectively push his chips to the middle of the table at the league’s Nov. 4 trade deadline by dealing two first-round picks to acquire New York Jets All-Pro cornerback Source Gardner.
And indeed, perhaps Mr. Ballard was on a roll after nearly a decade of disappointing tenure despite some key circumstances beyond his control. But Gardner’s big swing also reflected Coach Ballard’s belief that this team was championship-worthy and his players should act accordingly. And what a story it would be if the Colts were able to end a nearly 20-year championship drought just months after the surprising death of owner Jim Arcee.
There’s just one problem. Ballard apparently didn’t account for some of those chips and buried them under the table. After all, a little more spending could have given the Colts some much-needed insurance at the quarterback position, which has been bitten ever since Peyton Manning went under the knife 14 years ago. And Ballard has signed enough players like Joe Flacco, Jacoby Brissett, Nick Foles and Gardner Minshew II to know he needs reliable players like that as a fallback. He’s also drafted enough players like Richardson, Sam Ehlinger and Jacob Eason to know that a nascent passer can’t be trusted or even expected to elevate the rest of the roster.
But instead of forgoing a Plan B quarterback acquisition at the trade deadline (current Giants third-stringer Russell Wilson, who is on a one-year deal, would have been a stopgap choice), Ballard opted to go with Jones, rookie Riley Leonard, and journeyman Brett Rypian, who resides on the practice squad. Even Richardson, who has been on disabled reserve for nearly two months with an orbital bone injury, was not an immediate option. Given that Jones had been playing with a fractured fibula in recent weeks before tearing his Achilles tendon Sunday against Jacksonville, one wonders if this strategy veered into personnel error. But Ballard didn’t bring in an experienced free agent like Taylor Heinicke, or plucked a passer from another club’s practice squad on an interim basis.
Well, here we are – if ever there was a player-coach, Rivers is back after being out of the league for almost five years. Sure, he knows the organization. Sure, he knows head coach Shane Steichen and his playbook from his years with the Chargers. Certainly, Rivers is a Hall of Fame quarterback. Sure, he’s 44 years old, but given his limited physical talent, in some ways he’s been a 44-year-old quarterback for the past 24 years. right?
But it’s neither fair nor reasonable to expect Rivers to pick up where he left off and lead the Colts back to the playoffs. The Colts aren’t even expected to make the playoffs at this point, considering the turmoil in the situation after Sunday’s setback. And if Rivers is forced into the lineup (hopefully not against that pesky Seahawks defense in Seattle this weekend) and Flacco catches lightning in a bottle like he did with the Cleveland Browns two years ago and gets Indy through Week 19, then what? For example, why wouldn’t a defensive-minded team like the Jaguars, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, or New England Patriots acquire superstar back Jonathan Taylor and force a rusty guy born the year Ronald Reagan took office (1981) to beat them?
Certainly, there’s no great risk in signing Rivers. But there’s no real benefit either. Even if he somehow wins one playoff game, Ballard will be in an unenviable position at some point in January. And that means they have one of the top cornerbacks in the ground-and-pound department, with one quarterback (Richardson) looking ready for a fresh start and another (Jones) rehabbing a serious injury but just before the free agency period, which could still create a bidding war regardless of whether he’s ready to start the 2026 season. Oh, and there won’t be a first-round pick next year or 2027 as an alternative to solving this quandary.
Poker is a cruel game. But Ballard, who seems to be following his heart these days, is currently having a lot of trouble…and may soon find himself in a lonely place looking for a new job.
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