Philip Rivers isn’t ready to retire, but the Chargers should look for his replacement anyway

Philip Rivers will turn 36 years old before the end of the 2017 season. While that’s still four years younger than the ageless Tom Brady, it’s close to the age the average NFL quarterback’s career comes to an end.

Rivers isn’t ready to hang it up, though. Like Brady and Aaron Rodgers, the Los Angeles Chargers quarterback is aiming to play after his 40th birthday.

“I’ve got a couple more years left on this contract — three years left on this contract — and I feel good, I feel healthy,” Rivers told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on a recent podcast. “I still enjoy the process. During this minicamp, I enjoyed going out there today and trying to compete against our defense. I enjoy all the preparation parts of it.

“I don’t want to hang on at the end and just by the guy that hangs on, but if I still feel like I can help the team and enjoy it the way I do. And more importantly, if the team still feels that I can help them. I just know you can’t come back and do this, you can’t come back in seven or eight years and say ‘I think I’ll give it another shot,’ so I don’t see myself shutting it down any time real soon.”

Rivers said he hopes to be the high school coach for his sons like his father did for him at Decatur High School in Decatur, Ala. While Rivers didn’t want to put an exact number on the amount of seasons he has left, he told Schefter he thinks four or five more years would allow him to retire in time to coach his sons, who are 5 and 9 years old.

Rivers has started 176 consecutive games for the Chargers, never missing a game since he took the reins from Drew Brees in 2006. But 13 seasons after landing Rivers in the 2004 NFL Draft — via a trade with the New York Giants involving Eli Manning — the Chargers are close to facing the reality that he won’t be their starter for much longer.

Los Angeles didn’t land a quarterback in the 2017 NFL Draft, though. For the fourth season, the team’s top option if Rivers gets injured is Kellen Clemens, a journeyman backup who has thrown 10 passes in his first three seasons with the Chargers. It’s a bad situation for a team that needs a contingency plan soon.

It’s not that the Chargers didn’t have the chance.

The team drafted wide receiver Mike Williams with the No. 7 selection in April. Quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes were each taken in the next five picks.

The only quarterbacks drafted by the Chargers since the team acquired Rivers are Brad Sorensen (seventh round in 2013), Jonathan Crompton (fifth round in 2010) and Charlie Whitehurst (third round in 2006).

That hasn’t been a problem for the Chargers with Rivers playing the role of iron man, but it may be an issue soon. Rivers dealt with a bulging disk in his back and a rib injury in 2014, and he was among the top 10 most sacked players in the NFL in each of the last three years.

Even if he continues to stay healthy, Rivers may already be showing signs of regression. He led the NFL with a career-high 21 interceptions in 2016 and completed 60.4 percent of his passes — his lowest mark since 2007 and the 24th among NFL starters in 2016.

Adding Williams and maybe getting a healthy season out of Keenan Allen may allow for a bounce back. But the Chargers would be wise to not push the hunt for their next quarterback four or five years into the future just because Rivers hopes to play that long.