Philip Rivers and Chargers still discussing new contract

During the press conference following the first day of training camp yesterday, Philip Rivers deflected contract questions and general manager Tom Telesco made a pretty strong statement about focusing on the now and not worrying about 2016 or beyond. All of this lead to the feeling that contract talks between Rivers and the team had pretty much fizzled out and Rivers would be "playing out the season" as he said he would throughout the offseason.

This morning however, Jason Cole, via Bleacher Report, said that his sources are telling him that Rivers and the team are still negotiating a deal that averages north of $20 million a year. Rivers half confirmed this with Cole, stating that he would continue negotiating for now, but would not let these contract talks spill over into the regular season and become a distraction.

With Cole saying that Rivers and the team were negotiating a certain dollar amount, rather than a statement like "Rivers is asking for a certain amount" is a positive sign in my book. To me, that means at least SOME progress has been made, and with players like Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson getting deals which can be used for estimating a fair value, I am now pretty optimistic a contract could get worked out before the season.