Has Philip Rivers Made The Colts A Contender?
The Philip Rivers era with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers is officially over and I will take a look at how his departure will affect both the Bolts and Colts. I have been a lifelong Chargers fan and even I felt it was time for Rivers to move on. He had a great career with the Bolts but will now be getting a fresh start with the Colts.
As I stated, Rivers has had a great career so far, throwing for 59, 271 yards with 397 TDs and 198 INTs in 14 years as a starter for the Bolts. He did not miss a game in those 14 years. Rivers was 123-101 with a 95.1 passer rating for SD/LA. Last year’s passer rating of 88.5 was his lowest since 2007’s 82.4. As you see above, Rivers is very durable and he is also a leader in the locker room and on the field. That is something that the Colts have been missing in the last few years.
Rivers will help the Colts immensely and we also note that he has playoff experience and plenty of experience playing in big games. Indy needs that and they were just 7-9 with Jacoby Brissett at QB for most of last year, plus 4-12 with him at QB back in 2017. In 208, the Colts went 10-6 and made the playoffs with Andrew luck at QB. That tells a lot right there and with a QB that has the skills of an Andrew Luck, the Colts have to like their chances of making it to the playoffs this year. The Colts are currently heavily favored to win the NFC South and they have the 3rd best odds (10/1) to win the AFC Title, plus they are 20/1 to win the Super Bowl.
Rivers has been selected to eight Pro Bowls in his career and he has done a ton overall as you can see from his stats above, but one thing he hasn’t been able to do is to win a championship. Can he finally do it this year? The Colts do have some nice receivers, a solid offensive line and they have a good ground game that will help Rivers out immensely. The Colts are in a very good position to make the postseason this year and that means that Rivers has a good shot at getting the one thing that has been missing from his trophy case, a Super Bowl Title.
On the flip side, the Chargers lose their career QB and are now turning to Tyrod Taylor to try and win the AFC West. Taylor was a full-time starter for three years in Buffalo and took the Bills to the postseason in his final season with the team, which was in 2017. He has thrown for 9,562 yards with 54 TDs and 20 INTs in 70 games (43 starts) in his career. Taylor is 23-21-1 with an 89.8 passer rating in his career so far and did get into eight games with the Bolts last year. He does have some solid skills and the Bolts do have a very good receiving corps so Taylor has a shot at a very good season. Will it be enough to get the Bolts to the postseason? We shall see.
Bottom line is that Rivers has made the Colts instant contenders in the AFC while his departure from the Bolts means that Los Angeles will likely take a step back.
