Philip Rivers made an unexpected return to the NFL as a quarterback last month and his three-game run as the starter for the Colts has put him on the radar for another NFL role.
A report last week indicated that teams are doing research on Rivers as a head-coaching candidate. Rivers’ only coaching experience has come for his son’s team on the high school level and he’s said that his plan is to go back to doing that now that his return to the field has come to an end.
On Monday, Rivers said from the Colts’ locker room that NFL interest is “nothing that I would shut down before it even became a possibility” but that there has been no substantive interest from teams at this point.
“There’s nothing of concrete with that,” Rivers said. “I think, if anything, this past month has taught me you’re open to obviously anything, I guess, and you go from there.”
Rivers also expressed confidence in his ability to do the job if something should come his way.
“I do think, as humbly as I can say it, that I can coach at this level,” Rivers said. “I know enough about the game, about the guys from a leadership standpoint — camaraderie, all that comes with it. But, again, that’s not something that I’m sitting here pursuing.”
Six teams currently have head coaching vacancies and there should be word soon if any of them are planning to add Rivers to their list of candidates.
Add Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo to the list of Titans head coaching candidates.
Multiple reports on Monday say that the Titans have requested an interview with Anarumo. With the Colts’ season over, Anarumo will be able to have a remote interview with the team this week.
Anarumo joined the Colts in 2025 and the team finished 21st in points allowed and 23rd in yards allowed while going from 7-1 to missing the playoffs this season. Anarumo spent the previous six seasons as the Bengals’ defensive coordinator and has also worked as an assistant for the Giants and Dolphins.
The Titans have also requested interviews with Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, and Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
Colts cornerback Charvarius Ward is considering retirement at age 29 because of the ongoing effects of multiple concussions.
Ward told reporters today that he is still having headaches after his latest concussion, which was four weeks ago. He said he’s been talking to his family, and that his father thinks he should retire for his own health and safety.
Ward suffered three concussions during the 2025 season, and even before the third one he said he was concerned about his future.
“I was kind of doubting if I was gonna play football again because it was like that scary,” Ward said of his second concussion of the season. “It was that scary, you know what I mean, because I was thinking about my life outside of football too.”
Seeking a healthy and happy life outside of football may lead Ward to decide that he’s done playing football.
The Colts completed a brutal second half of their season with Sunday’s loss to the Texans, but going from 7-1 to 8-9 won’t lead to a major shakeup in the organization.
According to multiple reports, the Colts have decided that head coach Shane Steichen and General Manager Chris Ballard will return for the 2026 season. Team owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is expected to address the media about the decision on Monday.
Steichen was hired in 2023 and he has gone 25-26 through three seasons. Ballard has been with the team since the 2017 season. This is the fifth straight year the Colts have missed the playoffs and the seventh time in nine years with Ballard running the personnel department.
Quarterback Daniel Jones was central to the team’s impressive start and his torn Achilles contributed to the collapse down the stretch. He is unsigned for next season while 2023 first-round pick Anthony Richardson is under contract after missing almost all of the season with a fractured orbital bone. The Colts don’t have a first-round pick to use in pursuit of another quarterback after trading for Sauce Gardner and solving that spot will be a big piece of making sure that the end of next season finds the Colts in a better place than they are right now.
The Texans are the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Although Houston benched its starters midway through today’s game once Jacksonville had secured the AFC South title, Houston’s backups did enough to pull out a 38-30 win over Indianapolis today. It was a back-and-forth battle that saw the Texans take a 32-30 lead with a field goal with 12 seconds left — and then add a defensive touchdown on the last play of the game.
Today’s win ensured that the Texans will be the fifth seed in the AFC — and benching the starters ensured that they’ll be healthy next week when the playoffs start.
The Texans will open the playoffs on the road next weekend against the winner of tonight’s Ravens-Steelers game.
The Colts had nothing to play for, but they were surprisingly effective, thanks to a very good game from rookie quarterback Riley Leonard in the first start of his career. Leonard completed 20 of 33 passes for 278 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception, and also ran the ball three times for 21 yards and a touchdown.
Leonard’s strong play today will raise questions about why the Colts brought in Philip Rivers after starting quarterback Daniel Jones was lost for the season with an Achilles injury. Although Rivers played well by the standards of a 44-year-old who hadn’t played football in five years, he didn’t play well enough for the Colts to win any of the games he started. Leonard might have been able to play well enough to win games and keep the Colts in playoff contention — and at the very least, playing Leonard would have helped the Colts develop and evaluate a young quarterback who might be part of the future of the franchise.
But the quarterback questions facing the Colts are for next season. The Texans still have things to do this season, starting with a playoff opener against the winner of the AFC North.
