San Diego Chargers veteran quarterback Philip Rivers is once again putting up impressive numbers in season 2016.
Rivers and the San Diego offense continue to put up the points and after a rough opening month, the Chargers are back to one game behind .500 and looking good despite imploding on a number of occasions.
Rivers has been a beacon of strength in San Diego this season, as he has been since taking over from Drew Brees in 2006. This season he has endured trade talk, a leaky defence, massive injuries on offence and at times inept special teams play. All the while he has effused praise for his teammates and expressed his confidence in their ability to turn it around.
What we have seen from San Diego’s defence in the last two games is testament to River’s leadership and a vote of confidence in coach Mike McCoy. The Chargers shut the Denver Broncos down on Thursday night football on a night where Rivers picked apart the Bronco’s elite secondary when needed. He then watched on as his own defence stood up and secured a crucial win.
Down by 17 at halftime on the road against Atlanta, a fired up Rivers repeatedly told the team that they were going to win the game, and win they did. The defence allowed just three points after half time to a high-powered Falcons offense with some crucial plays from thumper Denzel Perryman and the ever-growing Joey Bosa, allowing the offense to come from behind to eventually win.
Chargers GM Tom Telesco deserves some credit for what looks like a top rookie class including Bosa, do-it-all tight end Hunter Henry (who has relegated future Hall-of-famer Antonio Gates to the back-up role) and fifth-round gem Jatavis Brown who has playmaking ability, great instincts and a nose for the football. These players are clearly benefitting from having a leader such as Rivers in the locker room.
Getting back to the career of Rivers, few could doubt his passion, intensity and week-in week-out commitment to playing quarterback for the Chargers. However to describe him in only those terms would be a discredit to his ability and record.
Rivers recently became the Chargers all-time leader in passing yards, surpassing Hall-of-Famer Dan Fouts. Rivers has tossed 293 touchdowns in his career, good for ninth all-time in the NFL, only ten behind fellow 2004 draftee Eli Manning and ahead of another great quarterback from that class, Ben Roethlisberger. This is in spite of the fact that both Manning and Roethlisberger assumed the full time job at quarterback in 2004, while Rivers sat until 2006 before taking over from Brees.
Manning has thrown 205 picks over his career while Rivers is at 139, a significant difference especially when considering that Rivers averages more yards per attempt than Manning. Eli of course has two Super bowl rings that cemented his legacy and the younger Manning had some great moments in the clutch.
The difference is that Manning has often relied on pieces around him to achieve success (especially in his Super Bowl runs) whereas Rivers has so often carried the team on his shoulders, especially in recent times. In a league where the best ability is availability, Manning and Rivers sit third and fourth all time respectively for most consecutive games played by a quarterback, a tremendous achievement for both players.
The Chargers would be foolish to trade Rivers as has been suggested by former teammate LaDainian Tomlinson and others. These suggestions were made as the world watched the Chargers crumble inwards in the opening weeks of the season.
Despite coming off a 4-12 season and currently sitting in last place in the AFC West, the Chargers have a lot of talent and with a few more pieces they may finally be able to achieve some tangible success for all of Rivers’ efforts over the years.
Telesco has had hit on a number of players in the draft, especially in the later rounds which is a good indicator of the organisation’s talent evaluators and decision making. Free agent acquisition Brandon Mebane has been a stand out on the defensive line and has clearly brought valuable intangibles and production from Seattle’s elite defence.
Look for Philip Rivers to continue to lead from the front in San Diego and don’t be surprised to see some success down the line when the Chargers make improvements to their roster, especially along the offensive line and in the secondary. Times have been tough for this franchise who have yet to claim the Lombardi trophy, but they have been lucky to have a quarterback such as Rivers at the helm. Players of his calibre come around rarely.
joe
Guest
Spanos is also in a long running saga over a new stadium he drew a line saying "we're leaving" & fans said ok.San Diego has had enough of the incompetent ownership if they saw commitment & effort from ownership maybe its a different story.But you have a billionaire owner with history of cost cutting asking taxpayers to fork over hundreds of millions to build him a new stadium and THEN he will be 100% committed to winning at all costs.Please,the Spanos family are liars. So this is why to me Rivers has been as good as any QB in the past decade excluding Brady.He has disfunction all around him yet overcomes that to still play at a high level year after year.
Alex
Guest
I'm not trying to bash Eli....he had a couple of remarkable seasons.....I just don't think he's very consistent unlike the other two....I think Rivers has really just had one bad year with high pick #s (and it was still a pretty decent year), all while playing with mediocre teams (albeit with many injuries and bad luck) with a three year period of high talent. Ben has consistently been good also. If you look at the combined numbers of all 3 it's pretty amazing and why I think they all will eventually get into the HOF. I think this class will go down in history with the Jim Kelly class as the best ever.
Mal Webster
Roar Rookie
Yep. Just look at the haggling done by the Spanos family over the Joey Bosa contract, good organisations just get it done. So many coaching changes in San Diego as well including firing Schottenheimer after a 14-2 year. I do see a bit of hope for the Chargers in the future, especially if they can avoid some of the injuries they have received in the past two seasons. Can't say the same for the Colts, they are wasting a great talent in Andrew Luck. Agree with you on Big Ben, he is a first ballot guy. No coincidence that so many successful QBs have had stable management and good coaching.
joe
Guest
The argument i make for Rivers is Eli Manning. People scratch their heads & are like "what?". Eli Manning,with assistance from his family/agent etc forced San Diego to trade him away in draft day.Why? Because the Manning's KNEW the Chargers franchise had been & likely would continue to be a second rate situation in comparison to more well run,structurally sound franchises.They wanted Eli with a competent organization..So Rivers ends up in the place Eli forced his way out of & basically Rivers' whole career has been played out in spite of an often dysfunctional head coaching situation & a front office/ownership not all in on winning no matter what.The Spanos family puts making money or saving money a bigger priority than winning which is their right to do,but Rivers has excelled despite all this. On the flipside if you look at guys like Eli,Rothlisberger & Flacco,they play for organizations who historically have been very competitive & have competent front office people & ownership. Thats a BIG reason why those guys have won SuperBowls although Rothlisberger to me is a first ballot Hall of Famer so I'm not putting him in the Eli Manning category of good QB but inconsistent. Rivers on the other hand had Marty as his first head coach & an excellent support system.That was for a couple of seasons until management decided to fire a good solid head coach with a guy like Norv Turner who was a failure everywhere he went.Then after finally firing Norv they bring in Mike McCoy who is an ok head coach but definitely not in the upper tier of head coaches. Meanwhile Eli,Big Ben,Flacco play for stable,well run teams & solid head coaching especially in NY,Pittsburgh & Baltimore.Although current Giants coach McAdoo is still unproven,but Coughlin prior to him is a Hall of Fame coach. Andrew Luck is facing same obstacles in Indy as Rivers has in San Diego.Luck has an owner in Irsay who is less than stellar.It no coincidence that John Elway forced his way out of Baltimore because of Irsay senior back in 1983.Basically the same thing as Eli.He didn't want to be stuck in a dysfunctional.franchise & Elway used his leverage to get out. Rivers numbers & consecutive game streak are fantastic.If he had wound up with a team like Pittsburgh or under a good coach like an Andy Reid or a Tom Coughlin maybe his record would be even better But he has put together a great career in a town/franchise that dosent win,ever.He isn't done yet so maybe he can still become a SuperBowl winning QB. He certainly deserves that chance just once to play in the biggest game & cement his legacy.
Mal Webster
Roar Rookie
Eli has turned the ball over pretty consistently since day one. That's not to say Rivers hasn't had rough patches - he certainly has. I wasn't really trying to make a debate between Rivers and Manning but I guess they will be linked when discussing their careers because of the trade in 2004.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
You obviously only started watching Eli after 2012
Alex
Guest
No one in particular......You don't know much about football with a comment like that. Eli, besides the Super bowls (give credit to him there), has been pretty average on a consistent basis. The whole playoff record thing is kind of skewed when your DB gives the game to the patriots, your FG kicker misses 3 field goals against the jets and you later play the pats again with a torn ACL. You can't really base it all on those games. His body of work is really outstanding and he is a tremendous leader. He's got 4-5 years left and no telling what he can do with that time.
Mal Webster
Roar Rookie
Big Ben and Eli have certainly proven it in the playoffs. Rivers may yet do so. He often seems to get left out when discussing elite quarterbacks just because of the no ring argument- Joe Flacco has a ring and no one would suggest that he is a better player than Rivers or Andrew Luck. Even Kaepernick has got to the Super Bowl. Not trying to argue that Rivers is the top QB from his class or anything but he deserves respect.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
"This is in spite of the fact that both Manning and Roethlisberger assumed the full time job at quarterback in 2004, while Rivers sat until 2006 before taking over from Brees." And both of these have won two Super Bowls (and Eli is a 2x Super Bowl MVP), while Rivers has a losing record in the playoffs. He is a serviceable QB. There are plenty better, but getting rid of him will leave you with a Ryan Tennehill