QB Philip Rivers - Los Angeles Chargers

6-5, 228

Born: 12-8-1981

College: North Carolina State

Drafted: Round 1, pick 2004

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Photo: Denny Medley, US Presswire

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News you need to know

From the upgrade/downgrade report (Mon Oct 15): Rivers was quiet in Week 6, but he only threw the ball 20 times. He has been very consistent for fantasy with at least 200 passing yards and two scores in every game. He's still a start vs. the Titans this week.

Week 7: vs Tennessee Titans

All QB vs TEN

Detailed matchup analysis coming soon.

Recent Stats and Projections

WEEK	OPP		oSNAP	CMP	ATT	YD	TD	INT	RSH	YD	TD	FumL	Pts
3	at LAR		52	18	30	226	2	0	0	0	0	0	19.3
4	vs SF		68	25	39	250	3	1	4	-3	0	0	23.2
5	vs OAK		64	22	27	339	2	0	3	-2	0	0	24.75
6	at CLE		0	11	20	207	2	1	0	0	0	0	17.35
7	vs TEN	PROJ-Tremblay	*	22	34	*	*	*	2	*	*	*	*

Weekly Performance vs QB 1, QB 12, QB 24

Percentile ranks

Philip Rivers's percentile rank in each category, among QB with more than 50 fantasy points.

Recent Game Summaries

2018 Week 5 vs OAK (22 / 27 / 339 / 2 / 0 pass, 3 / -2 / 0 rush)

Rivers turned in one of the most efficient performances of his career in this game. He completed over 80% of his passes and averaged over 12 yards per attempt en route to a dominant victory. This, despite the fact that the Raiders actually got pretty decent pressure on him throughout the game. Rivers demonstrated some rare escapability in this one, rolling out of the pocket on several occasions and getting creative with release angles to put his receivers in great position to succeed after the catch. There were a lot of checkdowns early on, as there just wasn't enough time to look too far down the field. But a play that was nearly a disaster, ended up being the play that started breaking the game open for the Chargers. In shotgun formation, Rivers bobbled the snap and nearly fumbled it. But he quickly turned and fired a pass to Austin Ekeler in the flat. Ekeler made two defenders miss, then took off like a bullet up the left sideline, racing past every defender on his way to the end zone for the score. Rivers nearly added another touchdown late in the first half on another screen pass to a running back, this time Melvin Gordon. Gordon took the ball 34 yards down the field to the 15-yard line, but tripped on his own blocker when he tried cutting to the outside towards the end zone. It's likely that if he hadn't tripped, it would have gone for a touchdown. Gordon rushed into the end zone three plays later, potentially costing Rivers a score. Rivers did add that second touchdown in the second half, floating one over the top of two defenders and into the waiting arms of Virgil Green on a designed screen. Green took off for the end zone, following his blockers in for the easy score virtually untouched. The longest pass play of the game was a bomb from just in front of his own end zone. Following a Chargers interception, Rivers connected deep with Tyrell Williams for a 48-yard connection. Williams had to wait just a bit for the ball to get to him; otherwise it too may have gone for a score. Late in the game, the Chargers didn't simply run the ball to eat up the clock. They opted to throw it multiple times too, with Rivers marching the team down the field with a couple of creative pass attempts to keep the drive alive and keep that clock moving.

2018 Week 4 vs SF (25 / 39 / 250 / 3 / 1 pass, 4 / -3 / 0 rush)

Rivers had a rough start to his afternoon. He tossed a pick-6 on his second pass attempt of the afternoon on a pass that sailed over the head of Keenan Allen, and opened the game 0-4 overall. But he quickly rebounded from the poor start to complete 25 of his next 35 passes, including three touchdowns. After the Chargers fell behind early, he engineered a drive with back to back perfect passes to each sideline, one to Allen and one to Antonio Gates. When they got near the goal line, he found a wide open Gates in the corner of the end zone for the easy score. Rivers connected with Austin Ekeler for his second scoring play, this one a strike thrown perfectly in stride to connect from 22 yards out. Ekeler was lined up out wide, and Rivers just dropped it right over the defender for the score. Rivers then found Melvin Gordon on the two point conversion attempt (kicker Caleb Sturgis had earlier missed an extra point). In the second half, the Chargers drove down to the doorstep of the end zone. Rivers rolled out and fired a pass to Gordon, but it was too low and he was unable to bring it in. If it had been thrown higher and in stride, it was an easy touchdown. But it was rendered moot, because two plays later those same tow connected for a touchdown. Gordon was left alone near the sideline, so Rivers fired a bullet pass in his direction and Gordon did the rest walking through some tacklers into the end zone. Rivers didn't engineer any other touchdown drives, but he did complete a pass to Mike Williams in a lot of traffic that really exemplified the accuracy of Rivers. No defenders were even looking at the ball, but he snuck it in between multiple players for a nice 15-yard gain to keep a drive alive. It was reported early in the second half that starting OL Russell Okung was questionable to return with a groin injury. He did not return, and no further update was given on his condition.

2018 Week 3 vs LAR (18 / 30 / 226 / 2 / 0 pass, 0 / 0 / 0 rush)

Even on a day when he was constantly under pressure and was never in sync with his top option Keenan Allen, Rivers still compiled fantasy-relevant numbers. He connected with his old pal Antonio Gates multiple times, but saved his best for second-year man Mike Williams. The two first hooked up on a deep bomb down the seam for a 42-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter. It was an absolutely perfectly-thrown ball, and Williams made a phenomenal effort to lay out and haul it in with full extension. Some of the other highlights included a long hookup with Antonio Gates for 27 yards (most of which Gates picked up after the catch) and another perfect pass to Allen for 25 yards to convert a 3rd and 17 pass play along the sideline. Rivers had to drop it right between defenders to convert. There was a lot more defensive pressure in the second half as the Rams led throughout and started to bring a lot more heat at Rivers. He did a decent job of avoiding sacks and finding receivers at the last moment, but he never looked fully comfortable in the pocket. Rivers did add a second touchdown pass to Williams, this time on a huge fourth down pass play midway through the third quarter. Williams had the defender all but wrapping him up at the 2-yard line, but he extended at the goal line and lunged his body across for the score. Unfortunately for Rivers and the Chargers, late in the fourth quarter they faced another fourth down with the game on the line and did not convert. He completed a short pass to Austin Ekeler that was short of the marker, and Ekeler fumbled the ball away as he was trying to extend towards the first down marker, which all but ended the game.

2018 Week 2 vs BUF (23 / 27 / 256 / 3 / 0 pass, 3 / 5 / 0 rush)

Rivers' day started off and ended with him on the run. But in between, he once again put up some large fantasy numbers. The opening play was a scramble where he was chased from the pocket, but the slow-footed Rivers actually ended up gaining six yards on the play. Soon after, he was firing strikes all over the field to multiple receivers. He found Virgil Green on the run for 25, then perfectly placed a lob in the end zone for Mike Williams with defenders all over him. The announcers speculated that it may have actually been a bad decision to throw it, because the safety read it and Rivers may not have noticed. But the end result was beneficial regardless. Next, Rivers found Melvin Gordon out of the backfield for a really easy score. He just has so many weapons at his disposal, and almost always connects with the MOST open receiver, that it wasn't difficult to see how he opened up 7-7 for 96 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Later in the first half, he was under a bit of pressure but managed to dump it off to Gordon, who took it down to the doorstep of the goal line. The two followed that up with a really tough connection in the end zone for Rivers' third touchdown pass of the first half. Gordon was in motion at the snap, and with the defender's back turned, Rivers fired it just under his arm. Gordon deserves credit for perfect timing and excellent concentration in hanging on. The second half was much different for the Charger offense as a whole. Rivers fired a pass that was batted in the air and could have easily been intercepted had it not been for Virgil Green boxing out defenders and knocking it down to save the turnover. But all of a sudden, Buffalo was getting pressure on Rivers from the edge. He was sacked on consecutive possessions (one of which nearly resulted in a fumble if the officials hadn't ruled that Rivers' forward progress had been stopped), and before you knew it the third quarter had ended with the Chargers having gained four total yards of offense. Rivers finally found Tyrell Williams on a crossing route to beat a blitz for 18 yards early in the fourth quarter, and made another couple of nice passes to Keenan Allen who got close to a score but not quite in. But a bad snap late nearly caused another turnover, but once again Rivers was bailed out by a teammate when Austin Ekeler pounced on the loose football.

2018 Week 1 vs KC (34 / 51 / 424 / 3 / 1 pass, 0 / 0 / 0 rush)

It took him over fifty pass attempts but as usual, Rivers put up huge statistics. After just one touchdown pass against six interceptions in his two games against the Chiefs last season, Rivers turned those stats around in a big way. And those numbers could have been even bigger if his receiving corps had given him a bit more help. There were multiple dropped passes in the game, most of which were potentially big plays and several of them would have likely been touchdowns. There were a handful of pass attempts that were slight overthrows or slight underthrows, most of which were still the fault of the receivers more often than not. But there were also at least two pass attempts that hit receivers right in the hands in the end zone for easy scores, and they failed to hang on. The running game was effective and the backs hauled in most of their passing targets, so it's not as if Rivers had zero help. And both Keenan Allen and Mike Williams seemed to catch everything in site. But Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin did their quarterback no favors in this one. Rivers looked outstanding, consistently putting the ball right on his receivers fingertips in positions to continue the play, and on several occasions he made perfect passes despite some heavy defensive pressure coming right at him. His first touchdown was a floater to Austin Ekeler in the end zone in single coverage. He read the coverage perfectly as the defense was bearing down on him. In the second half, he flipped an easy score to a wide open Keenan Allen and then later bought some time on a rollout to find Tyrell Williams in the back of the end zone for another score. But on what should have been his fourth touchdown pass, Benjamin just allowed it to bounce off his fingertips in the end zone. Rivers didn't play mistake-free football, as he threw one interception that was clearly his fault, and nearly threw another one on an underthrown ball. But on a day that the Chargers trailed throughout, he was relied upon far more than he should have been. With his old teammate Antonio Gates back in the fold, the two didn't have a regular connection out of the gate. But they did connect on a successful two point conversion attempt in the second half.

Latest News

Chargers | Philip Rivers throws two TDs (Sun Oct 14, 04:24 PM) - Los Angeles Chargers QB Philip Rivers went 11-for-20 for 207 yards, two touchdowns and one interception against the Cleveland Browns in Week 6.

Our View: Rivers did about as much as you could hold on only 20 attempts, thanks mostly to Tyrell Williams. He'll be a safe QB1 against Tennessee next week.
link to story

Chargers | Philip Rivers tops 300 yards (Sun Oct 7, 11:22 PM) - Los Angeles Chargers QB Philip Rivers completed 22 of his 27 passes for 339 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-10 win over the Oakland Raiders in Week 5.

link to story

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Schedule

7	vs Tennessee Titans
8	--- BYE WEEK ---
9	@ Seattle Seahawks
10	@ Oakland Raiders
11	vs Denver Broncos
12	vs Arizona Cardinals
13	@ Pittsburgh Steelers
14	vs Cincinnati Bengals
15	@ Kansas City Chiefs
16	vs Baltimore Ravens
17	@ Denver Broncos