The New Orleans Saints lost Drew Brees in the 2021 offseason to retirement, and they just lost Jameis Winston to a season-ending knee injury. Philip Rivers?
Trades are not the only big pieces of news dropping at the 2021 NFL trade deadline. Apparently, there exists a non-zero percent chance that former Chargers and Colts quarterback Philip Rivers could come out of retirement…if the New Orleans Saints come calling.
Philip Rivers tells me he hasn’t heard from the Saints but would listen.
— Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) November 2, 2021
How crazy would this be?
The New Orleans Saints are one of the league’s best teams, at least in terms of wins and losses. They are 5-2 and have won three games in a row.
Unfortunately, they also just lost their starting quarterback — Jameis Winston — to a season-ending knee injury.
In Winston’s place, backup Trevor Siemian played quite well to help lead the Saints to a win against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but with 10 games remaining on their schedule, can the Saints really rely on a committee approach with Trevor Siemian and offensive gadget player Taysom Hill?
Probably not if they have Super Bowl aspirations.
Philip Rivers never won a Super Bowl in the NFL, but he was certainly one of the league’s best quarterbacks from 2006-2020. Rivers’ outstanding NFL career ended last season with a one-year stint in Indianapolis playing for Frank Reich, and while the Colts made the playoffs they failed to reach the ultimate goal of a championship.
The Saints appear to have a championship-caliber defense, and under Sean Payton, the offense always seems to play well.
Given their backs are up against the proverbial salary cap wall, the Saints would have to work some more financial magic to get Rivers on board, but the salary cap hurdles are nothing some voided years can’t fix.
Again, all of this is hypothetical because, at this point, the Saints have not called Rivers that any of us know about. But, if Rivers is putting it out there that he would listen if they come calling?
You never know what could happen.
Rivers completed 68 percent of his passes for the Colts last season with 24 touchdowns compared to 11 interceptions. A guy that threw for over 4,000 yards just last season has probably still got something left in the tank.
The Tennessee Titans are calling up Adrian Peterson, so why wouldn’t the Saints call up Philip Rivers? Desperate times call for desperate (or, at the very least, intriguing) measures.