The starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts in Sunday’s NFL game against the Seattle Seahawks is still to be decided, coach Shane Steichen said on Friday afternoon.

The Colts lost starting quarterback Daniel Jones to a season-ending Achilles-tendon injury in Sunday’s 36-19 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars and finished the game with Riley Leonard at quarterback.

The sixth-round rookie is a former Fairhope High School star.

In reaction to Jones’ injury, and with backup quarterback Anthony Richardson on injured reserve with a fractured orbital bone, Indianapolis stunned the football world by signing Philip Rivers, the coach at St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope whose most recent of his 256 NFL games at quarterback came on Jan. 9, 2021.

And it appears the 44-year-old could start at quarterback against Seattle.

“We’re going to work through that right now,” Steichen said about the team’s QB decision on Friday. “We’ve literally just got off the practice field. But (Rivers) had a good week of work, and we’ll have those discussions here in the next couple hours.”

How the former Athens High School star feels after his first week of NFL practice in five seasons will play a part in the Colts’ decision.

“We’re going to have those conversations,” Steichen said. “Really, you know, how he feels and how we feel about it here in the next couple hours, and we’ll go from there.”

Steichen said Rivers looked “pretty good” in his three days on the practice field.

“He’s got great command in the huddle,” Steichen said. “He was throwing it well. So, yeah, we’re excited for it. I mean, he’s fired up for the challenge, obviously, getting back into it, getting back into the fold. Feeling the pass rush, got some good work in that, just moving around um seeing defense. It was good. …

“I mean a guy that hasn’t been out there in five years, to go out and practice the way he did this week was pretty impressive to watch. So, like I said, we’ll have those conversations here in the next couple hours, and then we’ll make a decision.”

Steichen worked with Rivers for six seasons as an offensive assistant with the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers. Steichen said Rivers’ meeting-room personality hadn’t changed.

“It was wild,” Steichen said, “because just having those conversations with him, it’s kind of like he picked up where he left off five years ago, just seeing the game and seeing different looks and, ‘Hey, man, if we see this and that, whoa, whoa, whoa.’ And it was back and forth and ping-ponging ideas off each other and the QB meeting room and talking to the wideouts and how he sees things. It was fun.”

But replicating the Seattle defense in practice isn’t possible with a scout team that’s prohibited from hitting the quarterback. The Seahawks have yielded the second-fewest points in the NFL, and Seattle ranks fourth in the NFL with 41 sacks. And the Colts will play without right offensive tackle Braden Smith. The former Auburn All-American is sidelined by a neck injury.

“The game’s a little different,” Steichen said. “The game speed will be a little different for (Rivers), so that’ll be an acclamation period for him, you know, if he’s out there.”

Leonard completed Sunday’s game against Jacksonville despite a knee injury, but the rookie has been a full participant in practice this week.

“He’s making really good progress,” Steichen said. “He feels good, so we’ll see where it goes.”

The Colts and Seahawks square off at 3:25 p.m. CST Sunday at Lumen Field in Seattle.

At 10-3, the Seahawks are tied with the Los Angeles Rams for the top spot in the NFC West with four games remaining on their regular-season schedule. Seattle and Los Angeles play next week.

By losing to the Jaguars, Indianapolis dropped to 8-5 and one game behind Jacksonville in the AFC South standings. Every team remaining on the Colts’ schedule has at least eight victories, with the 9-4 San Francisco 49ers next up, followed by a rematch with the Jaguars and closing with the Houston Texans, who are tied with Indianapolis in the AFC South.

Steichen said Rivers’ presence had brought something to the team.

“I think it’s pretty special for the guys to be around him,” Steichen said. “To see his energy, to feel his passion for the game. You know, he had a chance to say something to the team on Wednesday in the team meeting. I thought that was pretty cool. The guys were fired up to hear him talk, so that was pretty special.”