The Indianapolis Colts have announced that rookie QB Riley Leonard will start in Sunday’s season finale against the Houston Texans, ending Philip Rivers time under centre.
Rivers, who was brought in following injuries to Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson Sr. in an attempt to save the team’s season, ultimately went 0-3 as the Colts were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention this past weekend.
Coming out of retirement, Rivers went 58 for 92 (63% completion rate) for 544 yards, 4 TDs and 3 INTs as the once top seeded Colts now find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture. Instead, the club will turn to 6th round draft pick Riley Leonard out of Notre Dame for his first career start in the NFL.
Indianapolis also added QB Seth Henigan to their practice squad on Monday, with the expectation that he could be elevated to serve as a back up this coming weekend. Leonard will have his hands full with the Houston Texans defence, who still have plenty to play for, as they could still win the AFC South with a victory and a Jaguars loss. With both games taking place at 1pm ET, Houston won’t have the benefit of seeing what Jacksonville’s outcome vs. Tennessee is, and will have to “play to win” rather than resting their starters for the postseason.
The 6’4″ Leonard threw for 2,861 yards, 21 TDs and 8 INTs in his final season of college football. The 23 year old is a dual threat QB, who also added 906 yards and 17 TDs on the ground for the Fighting Irish in 2024.
Speaking to reporters after his team’s loss in Week 17, Rivers said he had no regrets about his comeback, and that he would accept any decision that head coach Shane Steichen made for the team’s final game of the season.
Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.