Philip Rivers signing with the Indianapolis Colts, even on a one-year deal, should give Frank Reich’s club a Super Bowl or bust approach to the 2020 season.
As expected, the Indianapolis Colts landed their big fish at quarterback in free agency. On Tuesday, they agreed to a one-year, $25 million deal (via ESPN’s Adam Schefter) with the Philip Rivers, who spent the last 16 NFL seasons with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers. He’ll assumedly immediately take the starting job from Jacoby Brissett under center.
The now-38-year-old quarterback is coming off of one of his worst professional seasons. While he completed 66 percent of his passes for 4,615 yards (his highest total since 2015). But at the same time, Rivers only had 23 touchdown passes to 20 interceptions and his team’s overall performance suffered because of his erratic play.
Despite the season he’s coming off of, however, expectations for the Colts in the 2020 NFL season should be sky-high with Rivers coming into town. Even with his age and even after Indianapolis was out of the playoffs with Brissett in 2019, the Colts should be eyeing a Super Bowl.
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Rivers never made it to a Super Bowl with the Chargers but, frankly, that’s largely not due to his performance. While prone to taking big risks and though he has some limitations, he’s been obviously good enough to lead an offense that’s competing for a Lombardi Trophy. And they’ll have the opportunity to do that with the team around Rivers.
For starters, the Colts boast one of the best offensive lines in the NFL after re-signing Anthony Castonzo, which is something Rivers rarely (if ever) had with the Bolts. Meanwhile, head coach Frank Reich has a proven history of putting his quarterbacks in a great position to succeed while also being a great play-caller. On top of that, he has strong weapons around him with T.Y. Hilton, Jack Doyle and Marlon Mack — and that doesn’t figure into the notion that they still have several Day 2 picks in the 2020 NFL Draft after trading their first-round pick.
Speaking of that first-round pick, Indianapolis sent it to San Francisco on Monday in exchange for defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. The addition of Buckner will help to give a Colts defense littered with talented players, such as Justin Houston, Darius Leonard and Malik Hooker, an identity on that side of the ball.
As if this weren’t enough, there’s a good chance that the Colts aren’t done in free agency. With the Buckner trade and then signing Rivers, they are clearly going all-in on the 2020 season and what they can accomplish. So defensive depth and more playmakers could be added there.
This is one of the most complete and balanced situations Rivers has been in, which is by design of general manager Chris Ballard. It’s a roster that largely was built to compete for titles with Andrew Luck at the helm prior to his retirement. And while Philip Rivers isn’t as talented as Luck in his prime, the veteran quarterback has more than enough in the tank to take Indianapolis to those heights.