Fantasy Football Fallout: Philip Rivers Is The New Colts Quarterback

Even though players can’t officially sign and join new organizations until Wednesday, March 18 when the new league year officially begins, the legal tampering period kicked off Monday at noon. During that legal tampering period, players can agree to terms with new teams.

One deal that was anticipated early on finally came to an agreement on Tuesday afternoon…

Former Chargers' QB Philip Rivers and the Colts reached agreement on a 1-year deal, per source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 17, 2020

Philip Rivers reunites with Colts head coach Frank Reich and offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni, who both spent time with the Chargers during Rivers’s time there. Reich was the Chargers’ quarterbacks coach in 2013 prior to being promoted to offensive coordinator over the 2014-2015 seasons. Sirianni was with the team over the 2013-2017 seasons as a quarterbacks and wide receiver coach before leaving when Reich was hired as the head coach of the Colts in 2018.

Philip Rivers Career Stats

Year	Age	GS	Comp%	PaYd/G	Y/A	PaTD	PaTD%	Int	PaPt/Att	FF Pt/Gm	PPG Rk
2006	25	16	61.74%	211.8	7.4	22	4.78%	9	0.447	12.8	12
2007	26	16	60.22%	197	6.9	21	4.57%	15	0.391	11.2	25
2008	27	16	65.27%	250.6	8.4	34	7.11%	11	0.574	17.4	3
2009	28	16	65.23%	265.9	8.8	28	5.76%	9	0.544	16.8	9
2010	29	16	65.99%	294.4	8.7	30	5.55%	13	0.522	17.7	5
2011	30	16	62.89%	289	7.9	27	4.64%	20	0.435	16	10
2012	31	16	64.14%	225.4	6.8	26	4.93%	15	0.414	13	24
2013	32	16	69.49%	279.9	8.2	32	5.88%	11	0.524	18	8
2014	33	16	66.49%	267.9	7.5	31	5.44%	18	0.455	16.6	15
2015	34	16	66.11%	299.5	7.2	29	4.39%	13	0.426	17.5	17
2016	35	16	60.38%	274.1	7.6	33	5.71%	21	0.459	16.2	18
2017	36	16	62.61%	282.2	7.9	28	4.87%	10	0.474	16.9	12
2018	37	16	68.31%	269.3	8.5	32	6.30%	12	0.544	17.8	14
2019	38	16	65.99%	288.4	7.8	23	3.89%	20	0.4	14.7	25

For fantasy purposes, Rivers has been a QB2 in points per game in five of the past six seasons with his one season arbitrarily reaching the cusp of QB1 status as QB12 in points per game in 2017. Still, prior to last season, he was a reliable QB2 option before the bottom fell out in 2019.

Rivers is coming off his worst season in terms of fantasy points per game since 2012 while his passing points per attempt were his lowest mark in a season since 2007. Those points per game and attempt were dinged in part by a career-low touchdown rate.

On the backslope of his career, Rivers fell to league average standards a year ago, but that is still a significant upgrade from what the Colts got out of Jacoby Brissett a year ago using the completion percentage per depth of target took at Sharp Football Stats.

It’s fair to acknowledge that Brissett was working with a skeleton crew for the majority of the 2019 season while Rivers was working with all of Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Hunter Henry, Austin Ekeler, and Melvin Gordon in the prime of their careers.

In Indianapolis, he currently has T.Y. Hilton – who turns 31-years-old in November- and a bunch of unknown pieces at wide receiver. The most alluring of the younger options is Parris Campbell, the 57th pick of last year’s draft, who found the field for just seven games as a rookie.

At tight end, catch and fall tight end Jack Doyle is on the radar as a TE2 option Averaging a career 9.0 yards per catch and 6.6 yards per target, Doyle is a player that needs volume.

Perhaps the most intriguing piece here is Nyheim Hines. His snap share was significantly reduced last season (32%) from 2018 (44%), but Hines managed to catch another 44 passes a year ago, giving him 107 receptions through two years in the NFL. The downside is that he’s averaged just 7.0 yards per catch and 5.2 yards per target on those passing game opportunities. He’s sort of a poor man’s Theo Riddick.

But Rivers has peppered backfields before, with the Chargers ranking first, third, and 11th in backfield targets over the past three seasons. Rivers has been fortunate to play with some illustrious pass catchers in LaDainian Tomlinson, Darren Sproles, Danny Woodhead, and Austin Ekeler, but the stationary Rivers is willing to check the ball down. If the Colts don’t add another pass-catching option this offseason, Hines should have the role once again as Marlon Mack has been 59th and 79th in receiving points per game over the past two seasons with a combined 31-185-1 receiving line.