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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Eighteen months before embarking on an improbable NFL comeback, Philip Rivers was back home in Mobile, Ala., helping a trio of young quarterbacks prepare for the NFL Draft.

Now, there’s a chance that Rivers, the 44-year-old who practiced with the Indianapolis Colts for the first time Wednesday, could face one of those quarterbacks in the playoffs.

“Kind of like everybody else,” Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said Wednesday, “I’m eager to see what comes of it.”

Nix spent time with Rivers before the 2024 draft, learning about the game “from one of the smarter quarterbacks to play.” So did New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. The group also included Carter Bradley, a prospect out of South Alabama who went undrafted but has since spent time with the Las Vegas Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and, currently, the Jacksonville Jaguars. The quarterbacks connected with Rivers through QB Country, the training and development program for passers headquartered in Alabama, and have worked with Rivers’ son.

They all came away with a shared impression of Rivers.

“The biggest thing was he still throws it good,” Maye said Wednesday. “Shoot, that was two springs ago. He was slinging it good.”

Maye and Nix, the third and 12th selections in that 2024 draft, respectively, are guiding the AFC’s top two teams in their second seasons as starters. The Broncos and Patriots are both 11-2 and riding 10-game winning streaks entering Week 15. There’s a good chance one of the Broncos or Patriots could end up with the No. 2 seed in the AFC, potentially pitting them in a first-round matchup with a seventh-seeded Colts team led by a quarterback who is older than his head coach, Shane Steichen.

That is getting ahead of things, of course. The Colts have not even announced whether Rivers, who is currently on the team’s practice squad, will be elevated to start Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. Even if Rivers does play and gives a team that has lost three straight games a spark, will it be enough for the Colts, who are currently out of the playoff picture at eighth in the AFC, to put the brakes on their late-season slide and scratch out enough wins to reach the postseason?

However it plays out, the quarterbacks who got a close-up view of Rivers throwing the ball in Alabama understand why he was drawn to the idea of giving himself one last shot in the NFL.

“He’s still a kid. He just loves this game. He’s excited when he gets to talk ball,” Bradley, whose father, Gus, was the defensive coordinator with the Chargers during the latter part of Rivers’ career with the team, told the Florida Times-Union on Wednesday. “That’s who he is. He’s awesome to be around. It’s just ball, ball, ball all the time. I’m excited to see him in Indy.”

As much as anything else, the workout sessions with the young quarterbacks offered Rivers the opportunity to scratch a competitive itch.

“He’s the ultimate competitor,” said Maye, who shared before the draft that Rivers routinely bested the young quarterbacks in throwing competitions — and let them hear about it. “I’m sure he knows the offense well, and I’m sure he still slings it great. I saw some of his press conference; that was pretty funny. Great guy, and when I was around him, he was great to me. Pretty cool with something like that.”

Drake Maye trained a bit with Philip Rivers before the draft.

Maye said Rivers was throwing it well then and it’s cool that Rivers is returning at 44.

Will Maye be playing at that age?

“If I’m moving around still, I hope so.” pic.twitter.com/xJHcvEMBrK

— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) December 10, 2025

For Nix, being the Broncos’ quarterback means he’s heard stories of some of Rivers’ epic battles with Denver during his 16 seasons with the Chargers. He saw Rivers’ passion for the game in some of those spring workouts before the draft. Nix believes the “ups and downs” Rivers endured during his career have equipped him to handle what will be a daunting challenge — stepping into an NFL huddle nearly five years after he last played in the NFL during the Colts’ wild-card loss to Buffalo in early 2021.

“He played long into his career, so he understands how it is playing older and not being able to move around probably like he wanted to as a young guy,” Nix said. “So he’s not in uncomfortable territory or waters, I can promise you that. If anything, this break has allowed him to see the game differently. You never know, it could be a good spark that they need. I’m happy for him. That’s a cool thing to see a legendary player like that sort of come back and make another run at it.”