Los Angeles Chargers: Tyrod Taylor signing is telling of Philip Rivers’ future

The Los Angeles Chargers found their backup at quarterback for the next two seasons by signing former Bills and Browns starting quarterback, Tyrod Taylor.

The Los Angeles Chargers have been somewhat active so far during the offseason. Although the team has not made any massive splashes, Los Angeles has made several smaller signings that have an overall positive impact on the team.

The Chargers have been very smart to re-sign some of the most important players on the roster. Denzel Perryman, Brandon Mebane and Adrian Phillips have been re-signed to fill some of the potential voids. Veteran linebacker Thomas Davis was signed to sum up the linebacker core.

The other signing the team has made is probably the biggest name signed this offseason — Tyrod Taylor. Taylor is a relatively household name in the NFL after being the starting quarterback of the Buffalo Bills for several years as well as the Cleveland Browns.

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Before the signing, it appeared as if Taylor was heading to the Miami Dolphins to be their starting quarterback. That obviously is not what happened, as he signed a two-year deal to be Philip Rivers backup.

This is telling of what the Chargers are going to do at quarterback in the near future and how long Rivers is going to stay at it. Rivers is in the last year of his contract and because of his age it is possible that he could either retire or the team could simply go a different direction.

Some might think that the Taylor signing serves as a bridge from Rivers to the next young quarterback; a stop-gap option that is going to fill that one-year void.

That is not the case at all. Rivers in 2020 is still probably going to be the better quarterback and it would make more sense to just keep him around that extra year.

And that is exactly what the team is going to do. Rivers is going to play at least two more years with the Chargers with Taylor serving as the emergency backup.

The reason for this is clear: the Los Angeles Chargers are a well-rounded, competitive team that can contend even if Rivers goes down. However, the team cannot be completely inadequate at quarterback as that can sink the ship.

Taylor is good enough as an emergency backup where the Chargers could put him in if anything happened to Rivers without there being any serious repercussions. The two-year nature of this deal means that is the plan for the next two years, entailing Rivers will stick around.

This does not rule out the Los Angeles Chargers drafting a quarterback this year as the team might want to draft a quarterback and let him learn for two years and only use him if really needed.

It does rule out 2019 being Rivers last year with the Los Angeles Chargers, though.