Philip Rivers Is No Longer a Top 10 Quarterback

Chris Simms of Bleacher Report ranked all 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL based “athleticism, arm strength, decision-making and composure.” The Los Angeles Chargers’ Philip Rivers comes in at 13th behind the likes of Jameis Winston, Kirk Cousins, Matthew Stafford, Derek Carr, Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, as well as the players you would more naturally expect to see ranked ahead of El Capitan.

Now, you can make a pretty compelling argument for most of those players given the decline in the physical ability of the Chargers’ veteran quarterback, but you have to wonder how Winston or Cousins are now considered to be superior players to Rivers. They are both his superior physically at this point (or probably any other point) in their respective careers, but the idea that Rivers’ decision-making and composure have fallen off so much as to no longer make up for the difference in physical ability is jarring.

Rivers’ decision-making certainly looked worse on paper last year given the high interception totals he put up, but he was among the most unlucky passers in the league in that only one “interceptable” ball he threw wasn’t turned into a turnover. He was also dealing with a receiving corps missing its best player and an offensive line that barely passed as an offensive line, however. It will be interesting to see how his “decision-making” improves given time to make decisions in 2017.

What do you think? Is Rivers being rated fairly or unfairly?