Three years removed from watching the Colts’ doomed 2022 season go from bad to worse with first-time head coach Jeff Saturday, it was hard to imagine an NFL team giving a serious look at another candidate with nothing more than a high school role on their resume.
But the Buffalo Bills were very, very serious about Philip Rivers’ candidacy to potentially become the team’s next head coach.
In an extensive interview with The Buffalo News, Bills general manager Brandon Beane revealed that the idea to interview Rivers, who had been retired from the NFL for nearly five years before he returned to the Colts’ roster for the final four games this season – making three starts, all of them losses – was his and he needed to do some convincing of owner Terry Pegula.
“I said, ‘Terry, at a minimum, we’re going to get a football education here,’” Beane told the News. “I always thought he made his team better. I just never felt like the guy had a team to necessarily win it, but he was going to will them there. What he just did (coming back to play) was all off of intelligence – not physical (skills).
“To come back and do what he did, like, ‘Dude, I thought you were going to pop a calf or tear an Achilles right away.’ I was cringing. I watched every single game he played.”
According to Beane, the Bills GM called Rivers’ agent Jimmy Sexton to gauge the quarterback’s interest, having heard chatter around the league that the successful high school head coach might consider the major leap. The next morning, Sexton called back to tell Beane his client very much wanted the interview. That night, Rivers flew to Florida – the bulk of the Bills’ interview process took place at Pegula’s Boca Raton property – and he interviewed the next day.
“I would still be sitting in that seat if he didn’t have to go,” Beane told the News. “Football savant. I learned so much. Listen, if he said, ‘I want to be in,’ he would have been in the final mix – that I know.
“It would have been outside the box but I will say this: When I told them who we were going to interview, everyone in the room was like, ‘What is this about?'” Beane said. “As the interview went along, I could see every one of their heads perking up like, ‘Holy (expletive), this (expletive) guy is really good.’”
The Bills’ interview process was an extensive one. The nine candidates each sat through a four-hour grilling on topics ranging from their journey to the league to their leadership style, their staffing plans, their analysis of the roster, their training camp philosophies and even how they’d react in the hours after a big regular season win. The eight-person Buffalo committee put each of the candidates through a 30-minute session on game management, quickly running through 15 specific scenarios to, in part, see just how aggressive a coach they were matched up in practice. The candidates even met with the team’s sports psychologist for a 30-minute conversation followed by a 20-25-minute assessment that gave a look into their personality and leadership.
After it all, Beane recalled to the News walking Rivers out of the building and asking him one final question: Did he really, truly, want this job? Was he really willing to move his entire family from the shores of Alabama to northwest New York – including his wife, Tiffany, and his many kids that still live at home (the Rivers’ clan is a dozen deep with the pair’s 10 kids)?
“I said, ‘If you have any doubt, tell me, ‘No.’ You did a great job, and I’ll be surprised if you’re not in the mix at the end,’” Beane told the News. “By no means do you have this job, but I think you’ll be in the mix.”
As had been previously reported, Rivers himself ended up being the barrier to moving deeper into the Bills’ coaching search. Just 48 hours after the two spoke in the parking lot, Rivers rang up Beane. Though the opportunity to work with star quarterback Josh Allen was one of the few coaching jobs in the NFL Rivers would’ve ever taken an interview to discuss, the timing just wasn’t right.
“I’ve gone around and around on this,” Rivers told Beane, “but you told me I had to be 100%, and I can’t say I am.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Buffalo Bills on Philip Rivers as coach: ‘This (expletive) guy is really good’
Reporting by Nathan Brown, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
