The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have an important decision to make when it comes to QB. Here’s why signing Philip Rivers could totally work.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have an extremely important decision to make this offseason when it comes to the quarterback position.
The Buccaneers will have to decide whether or not to re-sign QB Jameis Winston or to elect to fill the position through free-agency or the NFL Draft.
There have been many rumors that the Buccaneers could bring in veteran Philip Rivers as an option for the immediate future in the place of Winston. While I personally am not sold on Rivers being the right option, I decided to take a look at the other side of the spectrum today.
Here are five reasons signing Rivers would make sense for the Buccaneers.
5. He’s more efficient
One common misconception about Rivers is that he’s just “a washed-up version of Jameis Winston.”
While Rivers certainly did not have a great year in 2019, throwing for just 4,615 yards and 23 touchdowns to 20 interceptions, it should be noted that he’s still more efficient than Winston.
Rivers’ interception percentage was 3.4 percent, while Winston’s was 4.8 percent. Winston threw interceptions 42 percent more often per pass than Rivers did in 2019, according to The Athletic’s Greg Auman.
Many Buccaneer fans have pointed out how Tampa Bay would likely be a playoff contender with an efficient quarterback and Rivers would be a step in the right direction- at least statistically- in turning the ball over less.
Keep in mind that 2019 was one of his worst seasons and he still threw interceptions at a far lower rate than Winston.
4. Rivers needs to take a pay cut
Philip Rivers’ most recent contract had him making around $21 million per year– though he did make substantially less in 2019.
That being said, one of the values of taking Rivers over Winston would be in salary cap space. Bruce Arians has noted that he wants to keep his front-seven together.
If Rivers wants to play anymore football, he’s more than likely going to want it to be for a team in Florida.
Why would he not consider taking a pay cut for a final couple of years getting to play for an organization that could be contender?
He doesn’t need to take an enormous pay-cut, but he could save the Buccaneers an extra $6-$9 million, which could be used to put pieces around him and make the team better.
3. Veteran leadership
The one area- probably more so than anything else- that Rivers could come in and make an impact would be in his leadership.
Winston has developed into a solid leader over his career, but Rivers has been a part of playoff teams and he knows what it takes to compete.
His leadership would be invaluable and would be a nice addition to a franchise that has plenty of young talent during its rebuilding and ‘growing-up’ years.
2. Rivers would do well in the system
Some would disagree with me on this.
But, if you gave Philip Rivers the same amount of passing attempts as Jameis Winston in 2019, here’s his stat line mathematically:
At completing 66 percent of his passes, he would’ve thrown for 4,888 yards, 26 touchdowns and 21 interceptions. That was a down year for him.
For those saying that his “arm is weak and he can’t throw the deep ball anymore,” that’s not necessarily true. Rivers has been one of the most consistent deep-ball throwers in the league for the last decade and he still showed bursts of that at times last season, though his numbers were much lower.
Let’s not forget that just a year ago Rivers threw for 4,308 yards and 32 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions with the Chargers.
The Buccaneers would be taking a short-term risk hoping that Rivers could return to 2018 form. He’s had a few down years in the past and then bounced back, so there’s reason to believe that could be the case here, especially with the stable of talented wide receivers that Tampa Bay possesses.
1. He’d be a bridge to the future
Overall, the No. 1 reason the Buccaneers would be bringing Rivers in would be if they didn’t believe Jameis Winston was the future.
Signing Rivers to a one-year or two-year deal would give Tampa Bay a look at the next two drafts with the veteran QB at the helm. Perhaps a guy like Jacob Eason or Jordan Love is the answer?
Maybe the Buccaneers wait and look at some of the 2021 QB prospects, led by Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields.
The fact of the matter is this: The Buccaneers only elect to go the Philip Rivers route if they’re convinced that Jameis Winston isn’t the future.
There are reasons to think that the Rivers experiment could work, but it’d be a great gamble. I’m not convinced that the risk is worth the reward, but it will be interesting to see how the front-office lets these things play out over the course of the next few weeks heading into March.