The Fantasy Greek’s Fantasy Football Player Of The Week: Philip Rivers

This season’s feel good story has to be the comeback play of Philip Rivers, a player whose talents languished the past two seasons in a Chargers offense that could have only been described as anemic.

To begin, Philip Rivers’ professional career started with controversy that developed in the early part of the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft, directly involving Eli Manning and indirectly Rivers — sort of. In short, Manning was drafted by the Chargers first overall, and Rivers by the Giants fourth overall. Due to Manning’s refusal to play for the Chargers, the Chargers and Giants traded one player for the other and the Chargers also received several other draft picks as compensation. The Giants really wanted Manning, to say the least. The Chargers liked Rivers, and the deal worked.

After this tumultuous start to his career, Rivers ended up being the back-up to the young and talented Drew Brees, who had already been with the team for three years. For the following two seasons, Rivers  watched and learned. In 2005, Brees’ contract was not renewed after he sustained a serious shoulder injury, which some thought would be career ending. That’s obviously not what happened for Brees. But for Rivers, this opened the door to an opportunity to lead a Chargers team that in the previous ten seasons, won more games than it lost just two times. There was momentum that had built, and Rivers seized it.

In four of the next five years, with Rivers under center, the Chargers posted a regular season winning record four times, made the playoffs four times, and made it to the AFC Conference Championship game once, in 2007, only to lose to the Super Bowl bound Patriots.

Besides team accomplishments, Rivers has had a few of his own. Three times, Rivers has led the league in average yards per pass. According to the 2013 NFL Record Book, if Rivers can lead the league in average yards per pass just one more time,  he would be only the third quarterback ever to have done so in a at least four seasons, all-time. The other two were Steve Young and Sid Luckman. Rivers has also thrown for 4,000-plus yards and 27-plus touchdowns in four consecutive seasons (2008 to 2011). In fantasy football, this made him a ‘stud.’

Then in 2012, Rivers had a severe statistical drop in his production. For the first time in five years, Rivers failed to pass for more than four thousand yards.  The Chargers saw their season record fall from 9-7 in 2010, to 8-8 in 2011, and to 7-9 in 2012. For the third year in a row, the Chargers failed to make the playoffs. It seemed that possibly, Rivers had lost his mojo, or the talent around him that helped him produce, like LaDanian Tomlinson or Vincent Jackson, had left. But, since Tomlinson’s and Jackson’s last seasons with the Chargers were in 2009 and 2011, respectively, that clearly wasn’t the case.

This past offseason, the Chargers hired Ken Wisenhunt as the team’s new offensive coordinator. Gone was the old Norv Turner big-play offense, and installed was a Ken Wisenhunt offense which seemingly could do more with less, with quicker passes for lesser yards that could go for yards after the catch. The offense didn’t need the big outside wide receiver to click, nor the workhouse running back to thrive. So far, it’s worked. Right now, Rivers is boasting his best completion percentage as a professional quarterback in nine years. In four weeks of play, Rivers has posted 1,199 yards passing, for 11 TDs, on 8 interceptions. Projected out over the course of an entire season, Rivers is on pace to have his best season as a pro with near 4,800 yards passing, 44 TDs, on only eight interceptions! If you have Rivers on your fantasy football team right now, you are loving life.

This week, Rivers faces divisional nemesis, the Oakland Raiders. Historically, Rivers has owned the Raiders. Including the down 2012 season, Rivers is averaging almost 300 yards passing per game and almost 2 passing touchdowns per game over his last 6 games against the Raiders. Amazing! In the past two weeks, the Raiders have given up 589 yards passing and 4 TDs. Rivers is in line for a top fantasy football performance in Week 5. Philip Rivers is The Fantasy Greek’s fantasy football player of the week.

For more Top 5 starts at the quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, kicker, and defense/special team positions, visit TheFantasyGreek.com, “Your Second Opinion For Your Fantasy Football Instinct.”

Written By: Jim Saranteas – @TheFantasyGreek and @JimSaranteas on Twitter

Founder of the fantasy football advice site TheFantasyGreek.com