Before the season gets even weirder, a bit of reality: While the Indianapolis Colts have opened the 21-day window for quarterback Anthony Richardson to return, the truth is that he has not yet been activated from injured reserve. He isn't going to play in Week 16, nor likely to play the rest of the season.
Still, any work Richardson gets in before the 2025 season ends, even in practice, might pay off in the offseason and early next year. While Indy might slip from a 7-1 start to an 8-9 finish, head coach Shane Steichen should keep his job. Richardson will still be working in the coach's system.
Almost certainly, though, Philip Rivers, who came out of a five-year retirement in hopes of helping Indy get to the postseason after starting quarterback Daniel Jones was injured, will not be back. The team needs to turn back to Jones (re-signing him in the offseason, if possible) to start, give Richardson another chance, or trade for or sign a younger QB.
Philip Rivers was helping Anthony Richardson and the Indianapolis Colts even before 2025
That doesn't mean Rivers won't be a phone call away from helping the Colts, though. According to what Anthony Richardson told reporters before his first day of practice since Week 6 after breaking an orbital bone, the 23-year-old quarterback sought help from the now-44-year-old quarterback even last season when Rivers was not a part of the team.
The communication between the two speaks well of the Richardson, of course, but it speaks volumes about Philip Rivers. Fans already knew he had stayed in communication with head coach Shane Steichen, as the two had a long history of working together. The retired quarterback was also running Steichen's scheme as a high school football coach in Alabama.
But Rivers owed nothing to Anthony Richardson, other than to simply be a good person who was trying to help a player who was still attempting to find his way in the NFL. Whether Rivers' words did help or not, no one can truly know.
In his second season, which would have been the season when Richardson said he spoke with Rivers, AR5 wasn't very good. That doesn't mean the older QB's advice wasn't worthy. Very likely, it was.
Moreover, next season, when Philip Rivers is almost certainly not a paid employee of the Indianapolis Colts, he might help whoever the quarterback is in Indy. One of them should be Anthony Richardson, and no doubt, the younger QB might rely once again on the retired quarterback's sage advice.