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Disaster struck the New Orleans Saints with Jameis Winston’s season-ending knee injury, creating a murky picture at quarterback. Right now, only Trevor Siemian and Ian Book are healthy passers on the roster. Taysom Hill is expected to return from a lengthy stint in concussion protocol this week but that hasn’t happened yet. Odds are the Saints will stick with who they already have, but we shouldn’t be surprised if they add someone new.
So where could New Orleans turn next? We already surveyed the landscape of free agents and potential trade pickups, but could they go in a different direction and bring Philip Rivers out of retirement?
Rivers, 39, recently wrapped up his first season as head coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Ala., and has said he’d be up for another year in the NFL if the right opportunity presented itself. He remains one of the most-accomplished quarterbacks of his generation even if his Chargers and Colts teams never found much postseason success. There are certainly worse options even at his age and a year removed from the game.
“I’m getting back there, I’m not quite there yet. I wouldn’t have made weight if we had to report last week,” Rivers told the Los Angeles Times’ Sam Farmer back on Aug. 5. He expressed optimism in whether he could get into football shape on short notice but made it clear he isn’t pursuing any NFL opportunities, with a couple of conditions needing to be met for him to consider it: “One, to have somebody want you, two, it’s gotta be right. I have not completely ruled that out.”
His name has been floated by some morning shows on ESPN and NFL Network, but that’s a far cry from any reported interest. At this point we’re all just speculating. We’ll see if anything materializes in the days ahead.
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