When telling the story of the NFL, there are many chapters and footnotes one must remember to encapsulate what this sport and league is all about. The Colts in their lengthy history have no shortage of these
to tell.
They can range wildly in tone and emotions. From a heartwarming story of players rallying behind a coach stricken with leukemia to make miraculous comeback victories to the playoffs.
To the tragic cautionary tale of a quarterback not given enough support around him and medically retiring early in a career thought to be destined for greatness. The Colts truly can encapsulate the full human experience of watching football and its vast spectrum of emotions that come with game we love.
The 2025 Colts season might just embody the emotional highs and lows alongside the pure unpredictability this game brings. One day you can be 8-2, atop of the AFC and pushing for a 1 seed. You have a Running Back in the rarified air of MVP consideration in the modern era. An All Pro Corner is joining your revamped secondary in a massive midseason blockbuster trade. Your new veteran Free Agent Quarterback is in the midst of a career that can earn him a hefty paycheck with two healthy legs underneath him. The sun is shining, the leaves are pretty autumn hues, and somewhere the late Jim Irsay is smiling.
Then a month later you are 8-5, and outside of the playoff picture. Your Running Back has potentially been passed in Offensive Player of the Year consideration. That All Pro Corner is week to week with a calf injury, and his fellow star Corner has suffered his 3rd Concussion of the season. Your star Defensive Tackle has been missing for the last month and needed stem cell surgery and treatment with a neck injury.
And that possible franchise QB on his way to a hefty payday? He was dealing with a fractured fibula on one leg before tearing his Achilles in the other leg on a non contact play. His top backup can’t suit up in his stead due to a freak pregame accident involving a pole breaking and hitting his face while he was using a resistance band, requiring orbital bone surgery near his eye. The backup’s backup comes in for his first meaningful NFL action and is now week to week with knee soreness, leaving his status up in the air.
You would be justified in feeling a lot of emotions after the whiplash of this past month. Anger. Sadness. Frustration. Hopelessness even. You’ve started looking toward the 2026 Draft for some hope, but the same emotions bubble up to the surface again when you remember the Colts don’t have their 1st Round Pick in 2026 and 2027 thanks to the in hindsight ill-timed all-in trade.
And then, one notification changes everything.
Phillip Rivers. Uncle Grandpa Phil. The sidearmed slinger of the ball who once terrorized the prime Peyton Manning era Colts in the playoffs and briefly went to the Colts for his final season is heading to Indianapolis once again.
The first Quarterback Chris Ballard brought in to replace Andrew Luck once he had an actual offseason to address the position. The last Quarterback to get the Colts into the Playoffs. The first Quarterback current Colts Head Coach Shane Steichen ever coached in the pros back in their days in San Diego when he was starting out as a positional coach.
It is perfect, it had to be HIM.
Leave the neck-bearded Civil War Captain alone in Palo Alto, he is busy trying to build up his alma mater Stanford’s football program alongside his final NFL coach.
Keep the GOAT working Monday nights watching games alongside his Patriot-killer brother and a rotating cast of guests, he has contractual duties to ESPN and needs to mentor his nephew to become the next top prospect Manning to enter the draft (sometime in 2027-2028 most likely).
No, it had to be Phillip Rivers. Rivers never was the conventional great QB. With his unusual side arm throwing release, his danggumit passion paired with bolo ties, and Top 7 All Time Passing Stats with no All Pros nor Super Bowls but 8 Pro Bowls. His career was always marked by unconventionality, ever since his draft night where he was swapped from the New York Giants to the San Diego Chargers with 1st overall pick QB Eli Manning as another option/eventual successor to Drew Brees. If his career should start in an atypical way, why shouldn’t its end follow suit?
Freshly turned 44 years old this Monday, now a father to 10 kids and a grandfather to 1 grandson, Rivers has reportedly stayed in shape keeping up with his kids and coaching his 4th oldest’s high school football team since 2021.
This season the Saint Michael Catholic High School Cardinals went to the Alabama 4A semifinals under Coach Rivers. The playbook used to help the team get that far? The same one Shane Steichen uses for the Colts. Gunner Rivers is now the 6th ranked QB prospect nationwide in the 2027 Class thanks in part to that book and his fathers’ tutelage. Shane Steichen and Phillip Rivers reportedly have talked at length of the playbook and feel confident that they are on the same page mentally.
Rivers returning also potentially puts his Hall Of Fame candidacy on pause as he is a semi-finalist for the 2026 Class (the eligibility will reset for another 5 years if he is on an active roster, and he is currently on the Practice Squad). But who needs a bust in Canton when there’s still some football left in ya?
With all the uncertainty about the Colts, both in the present and the future; the raging waves of doubt, despair, and defeat rocking the boat of what was at one point a season of renewed hope… who better to right the ship than Rivers?
The only other options are either journeymen practice squad QBs that have little to no familiarity with the playbook, hoping that Richardson’s orbital bone injury heals at the very quickest end of a lengthy post-surgery recovery window (2-3 months, although in cases requiring surgery it often is longer), or hoping a 6th round rookie who was once mentored by Rivers and is reliant on his dual threat rushing ability can persevere and stay healthy with lingering knee issues. Safe to say the remaining options weren’t great either at this point.
Can Rivers Save the Colts?
I will be honest with readers, I don’t know. 44 year old QBs throwing passes in the NFL is a rare enough phenomena, with just 5 such examples in the league’s history.
One of those examples is Tom Brady, who is an outlier in of himself. The rest are Vinny Testaverde, Steve DeBerg, George Blanda, and Warren Moon.
The results of the other 4 are very underwhelming, although every non-Brady 44+ year old QB didn’t have the benefits of modern medicine, sports science, and played in much different eras than 2025. But none of these QBs, not even Brady himself, retired from the NFL and stayed away from the league for 5 years. Brady did unretire once, but it was after just 40 days of retired life.
Reportedly Rivers is in great shape, which paired with his mental sharpness and familiarity with the Colts scheme is encouraging. May we dare to have hope this can work out?
This is completely uncharted waters, with no historical precedent, so saying anything with absolute certainty feels disingenuous.
Who is Standing in the Way of a Rivers Playoff Return?
The Colts first face the Seattle Seahawks on the west coast, who at 10-3 boast a Top 2 Defense in the NFL and the new Offensive Player of the Year favorite: Jaxon Smith-Njigba. DeForest Buckner is eligible to come back from IR and maybe Sauce Gardner (who was week to week but not placed on IR, maybe meaning he is out 1-3 games instead of the IR mandatory 4 games) is able to return soon? Right Tackle Braden Smith is in the concussion protocol, unlikely to play. In his stead, 4th Round rookie Jalen Travis could take his first meaningful snaps in the NFL against the elite Seahawks pass rush. Even if the Colts were fully healthy, most would not expect a victory on the road against such fearsome foes.
But beyond the first game in Seattle, could there be hope for a late season rally to the playoffs? The 49ers on Monday Night Football in Indianapolis gives the Colts another week for the starters mentioned above to return. Rivers would have a full week with the team and would be able to go back on tape to try to iron out mistakes and miscommunications. And the 49ers aren’t the healthiest squad in the NFL either.
Then the Colts finish their home schedule with a rematch against the Jaguars. While the AFC South rival cats just had a devastating 36-19 victory in Week 14 on a rainy Sunday matchup in Duval, perhaps a healthier Colts with Rivers throwing the ball would fare better. After all the infamous Duval curse upon the Colts has made them unable to win in that stadium since 2015. But since 2013 the Jaguars have gone just 2-10 against the Colts in Lucas Oil. A home field advantage has been very present with these two rivals in the last decade, and it goes both ways.
And finally the Colts travel to Houston to take on the Texans, who controversially beat the Colts 20-16 with some questionable officiating that has plagued the NFL as of late. The Texans have had the leg up on the Colts in recent years, going 5-1-1 since 2022 and winning 4 straight. But in those 4 games, the score differential has been 2-4 points each game, with the Colts narrowly losing.
In another twist of poetic irony, this season finale matchup mirrors the closest season finale the Colts have played in their efforts to make the playoffs post-Rivers’ first stint with the Colts: the ill-fated 2023 season. That one ended with an infamous wide open drop on 4th and 1 by Tyler Goodson in the RedZone with the Colts down by 6 with just over a minute remaining in the game. The 2025 season finale has the potential makings of similar stakes, where the winner of the game would end up the winner of the AFC South Title and make the playoffs while the loser missed the playoffs entirely. The stage certainly isn’t lacking for drama.
Expect a heavy dose of Jonathan Taylor in these matchups, whose rushing threat and workload will be crucial in keeping defenders from pinning their ears back to rush Rivers and help keep the elder Quarterback’s arm fresh.
The Schedule isn’t easy by any means, as all 4 of these opponents are currently in the playoff picture and aren’t planning of getting out of frame. But with that difficulty of the schedule presents opportunity, especially to pass other AFC South Rivals to make the final tournament. Per the New York Times/Athletic’s Playoff Simulator, the Colts have a 20% chance to make the Playoffs. But those percentages can swing wildly in the last 4 games:
- 0 Wins = 8-9 Record: Under 1%
- 1 Win = 9-8 Record: 5% (Win one of the first three games) to 6% (Win vs the Texans)
- 2 Wins = 10-7 Record: 26% (Wins vs both NFC West Teams) to 54% (Wins vs Both AFC South Teams)
- 3 Wins = 11-6 Record: 80% (only Loss to Texans), 97% (only Loss to Jaguars), or Over 99% (only loss to either NFC West Team)
- 4 Wins = 12-5 Record: Over 99%
The Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet on the Colts making the playoffs, she’s just going through her vocal warm-ups. As the Rivers’ signing shows, the Colts haven’t given up their season yet. Should they win 2 wins they have a decent shot at the playoffs. A trio of wins would all but guarantee a playoff berth (no 11-6 team has missed the playoffs since the field was expanded in 2021). Anything less than that and the Colts are likely heading to Cancun in the 2nd week of January.
Rivers’ return to the Colts embodies what truly makes the theme of the 2025 Colts: chaos.
Forgo expectations, those are for boring fans of normal teams. Embrace the chaos. Can the Colts make the playoffs? Sure. Will they? Probably not. This is a hail-mary of a move to try to save the season. But the fact that it is even a conversation worth having at this point with all the insanity that would make lesser fans start pulling hair and potentially needing to be locked in a padded room? Eh, sanity is boring anyways and doesn’t come with a self-hugging sweater or grippy socks.
One has to just laugh and try to enjoy the pure insanity of the twists and turns that this season brings, irregardless of how the final page of this story ends. If it ends without playoffs once again, sure it will be a sad end. If it ends in playoff football it is one of the most iconic berths to the last dance in football history. No matter what, the season won’t be boring and unremarkable.
No, the 2025 Colts season isn’t for rational thought and expectation.
This is a season for all the Uncle Ricos out there who say they are still in their primes and can throw over them mountains…
A revenge on 2004 Draftmate Ben Roethlisberger for passing our Alabama native gunslinger in Yards with an extra season…
A chance to put up stats no 44 year old not named Brady has ever done…
Either one last shot at redemption or the cherry on top of a potential HOF career of never quite being elite or a champion…
Embrace the spectacle, it’s what Jim would want. No expectations, just vibes and chaos. And for that, Phillip Rivers is a perfect fit for the 2025 Colts.
#ForTheBoss
