Who Should I Start? Philip Rivers or Sam Darnold

Monday, January 26, 10:10 AM

Former NFL quarterback Philip Rivers has withdrawn from the Buffalo Bills' head coaching search, per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo. Garafolo reports that NFL head coaching "might very well be in (Rivers') future, just not right now." After initially hanging up his cleats at the end of the 2020 season, Rivers came out of retirement at age 44 and finished the 2025 season as the starting quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. He has coached high school football, but has no coaching experience at the NFL level. Buffalo moved on from long-time head coach Sean McDermott after the team's recent AFC Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos. McDermott went 98-50 in the regular season across nine years as the head man in Buffalo and led the team to seven consecutive double-digit win seasons from 2019 through 2025. However, Buffalo has not yet broken through past the AFC Championship Game since the emergence of star quarterback Josh Allen. A clear favorite to replace McDermott has yet to emerge, but the Bills appear to be casting a wide net in their search.

Wednesday, January 28, 6:19 PM

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (oblique) was listed as a limited participant on the team's Wednesday practice estimation, according to Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic. Darnold suffered a left-oblique injury in practice leading up to the Divisional Round win over the San Francisco 49ers, but he ended up playing. The 28-year-old wasn't really needed in the 41-6 blowout win, but he bounced back for fantasy managers in the NFC Championship victory over the Los Angeles Rams to throw for a season-high 346 yards and three touchdowns on 25-for-36 passing. Darnold has plenty of time to rest his oblique before the Super Bowl showdown against the New England Patriots on Sunday, Feb. 8. Seattle is the favorite over New England, and Darnold's oblique injury shouldn't be an issue at all as he looks for his first Super Bowl ring.