Los Angeles Chargers: Philip Rivers is the most underrated QB, ever

The entire Los Angeles Chargers franchise has been held up by Philip Rivers since he became the starting quarterback while also being criminally underrated.

For most of Philip Rivers‘ career, the Los Angeles Chargers have fielded a poor supporting cast that has not led to a ton of success. Only recently have the Chargers been able to build a very talented support system that has made them a legitimate Super Bowl contender in 2019.

Rivers has weapons galore to turn to on the offensive side of things and finally has had a good defense to bank on over the last several seasons. The one downside is that the offensive line is subpar, something Rivers is more than used to dealing with.

At 37 years old, the window is closing for Rivers to accomplish the thing he has been chasing his entire carer: a Super Bowl ring. And although his contract expires this year, Rivers easily could play another 2-3 seasons at a high level.

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With how talented the roster is and as young as it is, as long as Rivers is capable (which he should be), then chances are he will be coming back after the 2019 season.

If you have no dog in the fight, you really should be rooting for Rivers to win a Super Bowl before it is all said and done. Nobody in the league deserves it more than Rivers and it would be the best story in the NFL if Rivers finally was able to win his first Super Bowl as the tail end of his carer.

It is the lack of a Super Bowl that has held Rivers back in the all-time ranks. Because of this, there is a stigma around Rivers that he is not clutch, cannot deliver in big moments and is not as talented as his draft mates, Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning.

And while Manning’s Giants teams were both great stories, you put Rivers on the four teams that Big Ben and Manning won a Super Bowl on and they likely would still win a Super Bowl. None of those teams were necessarily driven by great quarterback play.

Just look at the all-time numbers to see how criminally underrated Rivers is. Rivers ranks sixth all-time in passing touchdowns and eighth all-time in passing yards.

Rivers will likely pass Dan Marino if he plays two more years to move to the top-five in touchdowns and can theoretically end up with more passing yards than both Big Ben and Eli Manning if he plays longer.

Passing Manning seems like a surefire thing, so it is safe to say that when his career ends, Rivers will rank in the top-five in passing touchdowns and the top-seven in passing yards. That should make him one of the seven-best quarterbacks of all-time, but if you were to take a consensus, most fans probably wouldn’t rank him top-10.

It is because of that Super Bowl, which really is not Rivers’ fault. Half of the time, the Los Angeles Chargers sent out a terrible supporting cast that Rivers was still able to do something with.

If he had the same consistency as Big Ben and Manning (at least before this current bad run) then he easily would be atop them in passing yards. Oh, and let’s not forget, both Big Ben and Manning got a two-year headstart on Rivers and still are within 2,000 passing yards.

He also has a lower interception percentage than those two as well, by the way.

We are not arguing that Rivers is up there with the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre — those guys are in a league of their own.

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However, just because he has not accomplished a team feat, Philip Rivers has been criminally underrated his entire career. Hopefully, the Los Angeles Chargers can change that this season.

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