Why Doubters Don’t Faze Colts’ Philip Rivers

Regardless of what’s said about quarterback Philip Rivers joining the Indianapolis Colts for his 17th NFL season, he doesn’t derive any motivation from critics who question his ability to play at a high level.

INDIANAPOLIS — Philip Rivers offered a reminder on Wednesday about what he’s learned in 16 NFL seasons.

It’s not often that 38-year-old quarterbacks excel at a Pro Bowl level this late in the career. Some skeptics don’t see that happening with Rivers. They remind that he had 20 interceptions for the L.A. Chargers last season. They question whether the Indianapolis Colts captain still possesses the arm strength to make the deep throws.

Rivers doesn’t take offense. He doesn’t any stock in such outside noise. Truth be told, he probably doesn’t hear it. His focus couldn’t be more simplified. He’s not here to prove something to Father Time. He was paid $25 million to do whatever he can to help the Colts win games. That mission starts at 1 p.m., Sunday (EST), at Jacksonville.

“I say humbly, I just don’t think I’m externally motivated,” he said on a Zoom video call. “Certainly it’s an emotional game, so you can get some external juice – I guess you can call it motivation in terms of the atmosphere you’re in or the challenge or the opponent or the stats that you can list of what you haven’t done. Maybe it can give you a little extra juice. It doesn’t make it more motivating. I don’t want to have a great year or help this team win more now after hearing that, if that makes any sense.

“The reason that I think I’m confident is one, just our team. We have a heck of a group. I still feel personally that I can play at a high level.”

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Third-year Colts head coach Frank Reich is convinced of that, too. He knows Rivers from their days when Reich was the Chargers offensive coordinator in 2014-15. Offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni also was a Chargers assistant coach. The playbook hasn’t changed much, which made Rivers’ transition that much easier despite not having any preseason games.

As much as Reich believes in Rivers as an eight-time Pro Bowl quarterback, he’s also sold on Rivers as a team leader. The players were sold enough to vote their new quarterback one of five team captains.

While Rivers will need to make the throws to back off defenses and open run lanes for a rushing offense that ranked seventh last season, he also doesn’t need to be a hero each week and will the Colts to win with excessive passing.

“I just want Philip to be himself,” Reich said. “I know he will. (He’s) a great leader, very comfortable in his own skin – just to be him and know that he has a good football team around him. Just play good winning football, execute what’s called, use your experience and your intelligence to make the checks, do it with confidence. Don’t feel like you have to win the game for us every week.

“We’ve got a good team. We’ve got a good roster. But he is a big part of any success that we’re going to have. It’s the quarterback position. So take what they give you. He’s extremely accurate. He has a great knack for the big play, so obviously we’re hoping to get some big plays because of his ability and knack to do so. But also, I’ve been in games with Philip where he’s 20-of-25 and it’s dink-and-dunk. He can do that with the best of them as well. Sometimes different games dictate different things. Just take what they give us, when shots are there be aggressive, and don’t think twice about it. But I expect big things from him.”

It also helps that Rivers has an offensive line that didn’t miss a start last season, the only group in the NFL with that distinction. He should have more time to throw than when he was with the Chargers, who allowed him to be sacked at least 30 times in nine of the past 10 seasons.

“I think had I been in a brand-new system with no familiarity and not one person I know in the building and totally new everything – maybe that happens more than not in this situation like mine, changing a team 16 years later,” Rivers said. “But (I’m) coming into a place where offensively, I felt comfortable. Certainly different guys, a little bit different environment, but I felt comfortable with the play call on the first day of training camp. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh boy, all right. I think this is how we’re doing it.’ I think that adds some confidence there, too.

“But most of all (it’s) because our team and the personal belief that while there were a lot of negatives last year, that I can still play winning football and help our team win a bunch of football games.”

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He’s never been to the Super Bowl. That’s another reason he chose the Colts in free agency. He saw enough positive building blocks to believe that anything is possible with this team.

Now that he’s had time to settle in, Rivers appreciates being part of a close-knit group that has some talented, young players and is hungry. The Colts haven’t made the playoffs in four of the past five years. They last won an AFC South Division title in 2014.

“I know that the display of a team and the interactions of a team and how you see guys – the love they have for one another, the fun they have, the care they have, the passion they play with, I do know that can be motivating and inspiring,” he said. “I think this team will hopefully give that vibe and that will be felt by the way we interact and play with our passion and effort on the field every Sunday. Hopefully this Colts 2020 team – I shouldn’t say hopefully, I’m pretty confident that our team will be one that can give off that type of feeling and be inspirational for a lot of people watching.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)