INDIANAPOLIS – “Never a dull day at West 56th Street.”
Mo Alie-Cox takes a good, long pause to stop and think. He’s standing at his locker Wednesday, and the Colts locker room is abuzz in a way it hasn’t been in … well, he’s not quite sure how long.
Alie-Cox, the 32-year-old tight end, is one of the longest-tenured players on the roster – only long-snapper Luke Rhodes has him beat – and in nine years in Indianapolis, you could argue he’s lived more lives in that locker room than most do in their careers.
This isn’t the place to get into all the highs and lows, the jubilation and near-misses, the surprise retirements, hirings and firings he’s seen, but this perhaps paints the picture best: On Tuesday, the Colts signed Philip Rivers to their practice squad, a 44-year-old current Pro Football Hall of Fame semifinalist who’s been retired from the NFL for nearly five years and in that time away became a grandpa … and that, definitively doesn’t take Alie-Cox’s wildest moment as a Colt.
“Well, No. 1 is Andrew,” he said, meaning the surprise retirement of Andrew Luck, of course, the franchise’s foundational quarterback days before the start of the 2019 season. “I might put this No. 2 or 3.”
‘Well, what about ’22?’ a reporter asks referencing … well, all that.
“Yeah, that’s why I said 2 or 3, because we came in here and hired Jeff Saturday,” Alie-Cox laughed, semi-sarcastically. “You never know what’s going to happen in here.”
To some outside the team’s locker room, the even crazier part comes in what the team’s veteran tight end says next.
“I think it can work, if we can protect him and don’t let him get hit. Get the ground game back to where it’s been. I think it can work, for sure.”
Call that what you want – blind naiveté, hopeful optimism or somewhere in the middle – but there’s a genuine belief throughout the Colts’ locker room that Rivers can resurrect the season and breathe life back into the postseason hopes.
According to The Athletic’s NFL Playoff Simulator, the Colts hold just a 20% chance of playing games into the second week of January – six weeks removed from being 7-1 with the best record in the NFL. And after losing starting quarterback Daniel Jones to a torn right Achilles tendon Sunday at the Jaguars, along with the right knee injury stand-in quarterback Riley Leonard suffered, with veteran journeyman Brett Rypien – who hasn’t thrown a pass in a game in more than two years – as the only other rostered option, no options under center out there were exactly plug-and-play.
Because any active free agent quarterbacks, plain and simple, aren’t seen around the league as one of the top 90 or even 100 professional players at their position, when you think consider that all 32 teams, at minimum, have two on their roster (64), plus additional ones either on active rosters, practice squads or IR.
Of the 16 other quarterbacks to have received workouts since the season started, only seven have thrown a pass in an NFL game. Only six have started a game and only two have started eight games or more.
Do Desmond Ridder or Jeff Driskel give you a better shot at winning three out of four games and locking down a playoff spot against the toughest closing schedule in the league than a rusty potential Hall of Famer who won’t have much mobility – because he never had much anyway?
“I did think it was kinda funny, and then I sat there and thought about it, and you know what? Philip really invented this offense,” said Colts receiver Michael Pittman Jr., who was a rookie for Rivers’ 2020 campaign in Indianapolis. “If we were going to go get a guy, I think he’s him.
“Age is just a number. He’s 44. How old was Tom Brady when he last played? 43? 42?”
Pittman is told the correct answer is 45.
“Alright, so he’s younger than Tom was! So let’s go.”
Rivers, 59 months removed from his last NFL start and admittedly, shall we say, stockier than his previous playing weight, the bottom of his red practice jersey jutting out ever so slightly, isn’t TB12 Tom.
But what Rivers does have, his teammates new and old say, is a rare willingness to try what to so many would seem impossible, daring or perhaps even unwise. There’s a juice, Colts head coach Shane Steichen said multiple times in his Wednesday press conference, that Rivers brings to the locker room that you just can’t quantify with any number or statistic.
For a team set to face some of the best defenses and coaching minds in the NFL over the final four weeks, rolling the dice with Rivers is a clear sign to some players that the front office and coaching staff aren’t ready to submit to the injury-plagued six weeks that have crushed what was once the surprise story of the league in 2025.
“I just think it shows that we’re willing to do everything we possibly can to continue to put this team in the best position for success,” said. veteran Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who like Pittman, was a rookie for Rivers’ previous year in Indy. “Phil’s going to bring that juice, that energy, that vibe that he has with him.”
Said veteran linebacker Zaire Franklin. “Definitely, unusual circumstances cause unusual answers, but I’m thankful we’ve got a guy that knows the system and knows the building and the guys.”
To Steichen, who along with Colts general manager Chris Ballard first called Rivers on Sunday night, not long after learning that Leonard had tweaked his knee, there’s an uninhibited optimism that the Colts have found a quarterback who knows this system and once operated this position just about as good as anyone ever has.
The Can he do it now, after all this time? part is a glaring red flag but it’s a question still with an answer yet to be determined.
And that may just be better, he and others would argue, than rolling up to this rugged weeks’ long battle with a quarterback still in study mode being asked to achieve something they never have before.
“He has the belief he still can do it. We’re in the hunt, and he’s like, ‘Man, we’ve got a chance, and if I can be a part of that, that’s freaking awesome,’” Steichen said. “He’s fired up for the challenge. I know that.
“And if he wasn’t fired up for the challenge, I know he wouldn’t do it.”
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: Colts on Philip Rivers: ‘He’s younger than Tom (Brady) was! So let’s go’
Reporting by Nathan Brown, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
