Philip Rivers is returning to the team he previously ended his NFL career with, agreeing to a deal to join the Indianapolis Colts‘ practice squad on Tuesday. While the head coach he played for the last time he was with the Colts is no longer there, he’s got a couple of notable connections to the organization.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen coached Rivers for six seasons during their time together with the Chargers. Rivers also has ties to Riley Leonard, the quarterback who he’s likely to backup in Week 15, or start in place of if Leonard misses the game due to a knee injury. Leonard’s parents live five minutes away from Rivers’ house in Fairhope, Alabama, where he worked out in the potential Hall of Famer’s backyard ahead of the 2024 college football season with Notre Dame.
Of course, with Leonard literally in his backyard, Rivers tutored the young quarterback as he threw passes to his Fighting Irish teammates. Roughly a year later, the Colts selected Leonard in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Shortly after the Colts selected Leonard, Rivers told “The Last Word” that he was impressed by Leonard’s leadership skills, saying, “I thought that said a lot about him being a teammate to those guys at Notre Dame, how much they enjoyed being around him and respected him and how they interacted with them.”
Rivers also liked the fit for Leonard with the Colts.
“[Leonard’s] just a real pleasant and enjoyable guy to be around,” Rivers added in his comments to “The Last Word.” “Just really humble, but really competitive and wants to just soak up all he can. You always want those young guys to be confident but also have that humility that, ‘I got a long way to go.’
“I think Shane [Steichen] has a great way of communicating [with] and coaching the quarterbacks. Certainly, Shane is completely capable and can assist with the basic fundamentals of pass drops and all that. But Shane is really an unbelievable mind when it comes to understanding defenses and coverages, and how to throw certain routes and where they need to be looking at, all those things. So Shane will be a great asset for Riley as he progresses as a young player.
“The thing about Riley, he’s going to do all those things right. He’s going to be there early. He’s going to end up being an asset to the whole quarterback room in terms of preparing the starter for the season, all while he’s getting himself better. It’ll be a good working environment for Riley and Shane and that offensive staff — I know a handful of those guys as well — they’ll do a heck of a job.”
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Over six months later, Leonard is now set to become the Colts’ starting quarterback. He took over for Daniel Jones when he suffered an Achilles injury in Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars, and with Anthony Richardson Sr. still dealing with an eye injury, Leonard is in line to start when the Colts take on the Seattle Seahawks in Week 15.
However, Leonard is also dealing with a knee injury. So, in the event that Leonard re-aggravates that injury or can’t play, Rivers could be set to step in for the Colts, as the only other quarterback option on Indianapolis’ roster is practice squad member Brett Rypien.
If Rivers, 44, winds up seeing game action, he might look like the version of himself that we saw during his last stint with the Colts, at least if New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is to be believed.
“We actually had a quarterback competition. We threw on the field, out routes into a net and, I hate to say it, but Philip won that,” Maye told ESPN’s “This is Football” podcast in 2024. Maye worked out with Rivers along with Bo Nix and Carter Bradley ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft.
And Rivers is going to a place where he should feel comfortable with the system. Rivers ran Steichen’s offense for his son’s high school football team that he coaches, speaking with Steichen on a weekly basis about plays and film, CBS Sports NFL analyst J.J. Watt shared on Tuesday.
So, Rivers likes what he sees in the quarterback he’ll be helping at his new home. But if he’s called upon, maybe we’ll see some vintage Rivers.
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