Philip Rivers last played in the NFL in the 2020 season with the Indianapolis Colts before announcing his retirement officially. Five years later and now 44 years old, the veteran quarterback is nearing a potential return. A former linebacker responded to the shocking news and criticized the idea.
Philip Rivers Gets Called Out Amid Potential NFL Return
The Colts will reportedly work out with Rivers to potentially bring him out of retirement and theoretically be their quarterback for the remainder of the 2025 NFL season. This shocking development came following Week 14 when Daniel Jones suffered a season-ending Achilles injury.
Emmanuel Acho is clearly opposed to the idea and thinks that the former quarterback should just remain retired at this point. He explained why during a recent “Speakeasy” episode in direct response to the report.
“Hang it up … Philip, you are not Tom Brady. Everybody is chasing that Tom Brady 44 year old Super Bowl run, but you’re not going to get that. You had your time in Indy and it didn’t go well for you … Stay retired … Don’t delay your Hall of Fame by five additional years so that you can go and get sacked and fracture a couple of ribs … This would be the dumbest thing that Philip Rivers ever did,” exclaimed Acho.
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01:36:20-01:47:32… pic.twitter.com/4efeMsg3r7— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) December 9, 2025
Rivers had a below-average final NFL season in 2020 with the Colts when he finished ranked 18th among all quarterbacks in PFSN’s Impact Rankings. Acho pointed out that he is likely to be a future Hall of Famer, and would be eligible to be on the ballot this year, but his five-year waiting time would reset if he were to return.
He doesn’t think it’s worth for him to try to channel the success of Tom Brady, who remained one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL until he retired. Being elite at over 40 years old is extremely rare and Brady was one of the few exceptions ever to accomplish this feat. He won a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after winning six of them with the New England Patriots.
Acho doesn’t see this as a realistic outcome for Rivers, especially considering he hasn’t played in five years, and was unimpressive in his final season anyway. The Colts are apparently desperate as the try not to let their breakout season slip away with Jones’ injury. Anthony Richardson and Riley Leonard are the other quarterbacks on their roster, while Brett Rypien is on their practice squad.