Philip Rivers Entering Free Agency

BY ADAM GREENE

I am legitimately shocked. A few weeks ago I wrote that there was no way Philip Rivers was going to ride in on his free agent horse and save your terrible franchise. That if he didn’t play for the Los Angeles Chargers, he’d just retire and enter the broadcast booth are find a table at NFL Network.

And while a leatherbound chair between Kurt Warner and Michael Irvin might definitely be in Rivers’ future, it appears that he’s looked at his options outside of Los Angeles and decided he could move his wife and 172 children out of Southern California for at least a little while. And, man, this changes everything.

THE CHARGERS ARE GOING AFTER TOM BRADY HARD

In spite of the Las Vegas Raiders being favored to land current free agent quarterback Tom Brady as of Friday, I’d thought all along that he was much more likely to end up back in New England for the last years of his career. Now, that might not be the case.

It’s no secret that Brady wants to spend the next few decades in SoCal and the Chargers are a team loaded with talent on the roster, just not on the coaching staff. With Rivers now officially out of the picture in L.A., Brady becomes their top free agent priority. And unlike the Raiders and any other team dreaming of adding a six-time Super Bowl champion to their roster, the Chargers actually have a shot. Look for Brady’s odds to take over as signal caller to rise significantly this week.

SO WHERE IS PHILIP RIVERS GOING?

That’s an intriguing question, because, as I said earlier, my guess was sitting next to Jim Nantz in CBS’ broadcast booth if Tony Romo bolts to ESPN. Now, I don’t think that.

Rivers is coming off one of the worst statistical years of his career. He completed 66 percent of his passes for 4,615 yards, 23 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. Now, here’s the thing. Those don’t look all that great, but Rivers has always thrown a lot of picks when the team is struggling. He’s a gun slinger and tries to make things happen.

Rivers is a Super Bowl trophy away from a Hall of Fame career and likely won’t get in without a ring. It could be that this is the motivating factor pushing him to seek employment elsewhere because that sure as hell wasn’t happening with Anthony Lynn still coaching the Chargers.

When the odds hit Monday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the favorite to land Rivers’ services and Bruce Arians has pulled older quarterbacks out of free agency before and turned his team into a contender. But I still think Teddy Bridgewater make the most sense for them. Bringing in Rivers means you’ll just be back in the market for a quarterback in another two years and that’s if everything goes right.

Nope, if I have a case to make for Rivers it’s the Indianapolis Colts. He slides right into Frank Reich’s offense and can offer a bridge as they draft and develop a new guy, something they were planning to do anyway. This was a team that was 10-6 in 2018 with a healthy-ish Andrew Luck and made it to the divisional round of the AFC Playoffs. Of the QB-needy teams that could legitimately compete for a ring next season, the Colts are Rivers’ best bet.

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