With just a few weeks before free agency officially opens, there are a lot of ways the Indianapolis Colts can go about the offseason—and specifically addressing the quarterback situation.
Even though current starter Jacoby Brissett still has one more year left on his deal, the Colts are among the teams to be active in the quarterback market. This has led to predictions of them signing a veteran quarterback, drafting a young quarterback or even doing both.
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The third option is what Pro Football Focus predicts. They believe it will come in the form signing veteran Philip Rivers and drafting Anthony Gordon out of Washington State in 2020 NFL draft.
There’s a connection there between Frank Reich and Philip Rivers dating back to Reich’s time with the Chargers from 2013-15, and it makes a lot of sense for the two to reunite in Indianapolis. While Brissett struggled to deliver an accurate pass downfield, Rivers succeeded in 2019, ranking eighth in percentage of accurate passes throw 10 or more yards downfield. Of his 14 seasons we have graded, Rivers’ 2019 was his fourth-worst from a passing grade standpoint at 73.6, but that was still right around the league average.
Though rumors and speculation have been swirling about the connection between Rivers and the Colts, there has been no actual concrete evidence to suggest it will actually happen. The fit is there schematically, but the Colts would have to pony up a lot of cash for a bridge quarterback while Brissett sits on the bench with a $21 million cap hit.
The NFL is unpredictable so it’s certainly not impossible. But right now it seems the Rivers-Colts connection is more speculation than actual interest.
Further in PFF’s prediction, the Colts have to find a young quarterback to develop behind Rivers. They do so in the form of Gordon, who seems like a solid fit for Frank Reich’s offense.
Indianapolis clearly needs another quarterback. In addition to bringing in a veteran, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to add a rookie — especially Anthony Gordon in the third-round. PFF’s Eric Eager broke down how Gordon actually is in fact a quality option at quarterback and mentioned how he would be a better pick in Day 2 than Herbert or Love. Gordon’s box score stats alone don’t make him a solid prospect, considering they were mostly schemed through Mike Leach’s Air-Raid. But his accuracy trails only Joe Burrow in the class. Last year, Gordon produced the third-highest rate of accurate passes thrown beyond the line of scrimmage. He was the 15th most valuable quarterback in college football a season ago, far ahead of Herbert and Love.
Gordon would be an interesting prospect regardless of what the Colts do at the quarterback position before the draft. They can give Brissett one more season to prove himself while taking a quarterback with some upside.
This doesn’t deal with what the Colts would have to do with Brissett. There are cap implications to signing AND drafting a quarterback to compete in the room, but that would be a whole other conversation.
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