44-Year-Old Philip Rivers Comes Out of Retirement, Signs With Indianapolis Colts

Rivers last played with the Colts in the 2020 NFL season and could start for the team now that Daniel Jones has been lost to a torn Achilles’ heel.

Quarterback Philip Rivers, No. 17 of the Indianapolis Colts gives a thumbs-up on the sidelines in the second half of their game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Dec. 13, 2020. Chris Unger/Getty Images

Philip Rivers is 44 years old, has 10 kids, is a grandfather, and hasn’t taken an NFL snap since the 2020 season. And yet, he is also the newest member of the Indianapolis Colts, as the injury-plagued team is signing the longtime member of the Chargers to its practice squad.

Rivers worked out with the Colts on Monday, having been signed after the team’s starter, Daniel Jones, got injured in Sunday’s 36-19 defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jones, who is in his first season with the team, and was an early-year MVP candidate, suffered a torn Achilles’ tendon in his right leg. The Colts placed Jones on injured reserve on Tuesday, as he will miss the rest of this season and is expected to miss a good portion of next year as well.

Meanwhile, Anthony Richardson, who sat atop the team’s quarterback depth chart the last two seasons, has been on injured reserve since Oct. 13 after suffering an eye injury during pregame warmups the previous day. The team’s third quarterback, sixth-round rookie Riley Leonard, replaced Jones in Sunday’s loss, but suffered a knee injury. His status is unknown for the team’s Week 15 game against the Seattle Seahawks.

The only other quarterback on the Colts’ roster is journeyman Brett Rypien, who is on his eighth team since going undrafted in 2019. Rypien is currently on the Colts’ practice squad, having signed with the team after Richardson was injured.

Thus, the Colts are turning to Rivers, whose 44th birthday came on the day of his workout on Monday. Rivers is familiar with the team—his final NFL season in 2020 came as the Colts’ starting quarterback. He started all 16 games, going 11–5, and throwing for 24 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. He also started a playoff game that year, and while he played well, the team lost. He announced his retirement 12 days after the defeat.

While the same coaching staff from the 2020 Colts is no longer in place with the 2025 Colts, Rivers is well acquainted with the team’s current head coach, Shane Steichen. The two spent eight years together with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, where Steichen held numerous roles. In several of those, he worked directly with Rivers, as Steichen served as an offensive quality control coach, the quarterbacks coach, and as the interim offensive coordinator.

Additionally, as JJ Watt, a former NFL player and now broadcaster, pointed out, Rivers has actually been running the Colts offense as the head coach of a high school team that Rivers’ son plays on. Rivers has served as the head coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in his native Alabama for the five years since he retired, and not only has he been utilizing the Colts’ offense, he and Steichen spoke weekly and broke down film together, according to Watt.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that’s what has Indianapolis turning to a player who hasn’t thrown an NFL pass in over 1,800 days. At 44, Rivers is older than his head coach in Steichen, who is 40, and the former actually has a daughter who, at 23 years old, is the same age as both Richardson and Leonard.

If Rivers does indeed take the field, then he would become the oldest player to appear in a game this season, an honor currently held by Aaron Rodgers, who turned 42 last week. Rivers would also become the fifth quarterback aged 44 or older to start a game, joining Tom Brady, Vinny Testaverde, Warren Moon, and Steve DeBerg.

Over the course of his 17-year career, Rivers passed for 63,440 yards and 421 touchdowns. When he retired after the 2020 season, he ranked fifth in both statistics, which put him on the radar for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is a semifinalist for induction in the Class of 2026, the first year he will be eligible for enshrinement.

The Hall of Fame requires a five-year waiting period after retirement before a player can enter, so if Rivers is signed to the active roster—regardless of whether he enters a game or not—that would restart his Hall of Fame eligibility cycle. So if he is promoted from the practice squad, he won’t be eligible until 2031.

The Colts have an 8–5 record after 14 weeks of play, having lost each of their last three games. They are currently third in the AFC South after leading it for most of the year, and Indianapolis is also eighth in the AFC standings, with only the top seven earning postseason bids. The Colts are hoping to avoid missing the playoffs for a fifth straight season as, coincidentally, the last time they were in the postseason was Rivers’ final year in 2020.

With or without Rivers under center, it will be an uphill task to notch a playoff bid as Indianapolis has the hardest remaining strength of schedule with a .692 opponent winning percentage, reflecting the fact that its four remaining games are all against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.