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Underrated and Unlucky

Philip Rivers has found himself on the short end of the stick in recent years. His teams have been plagued by injuries, he has had lackluster receiving corps, and even lost to the winless Browns. One of the better, and more underrated QB's in recent time, he has still triumphed even though the odds have not been in his favor.

In the last few years, Philip Rivers' receiving corps has been riddled with injuries, yet he still has found repetitive success in the league. With a solid outing in 2015 where he went 29/13, with a CMP% of 66.1% and 4,792 yds he was throwing the football in the second half of the season to a withered Malcom Floyd, Stevie Johnson, Antonio Gates, and Danny Woodhead. Yes, this receiving corps was nothing to balk at in 2015. However, there was no standout #1 after Keenan Allen's injury in week 8. Moving forward, he loses Keenan Allen (again) in week 1 of '16, and now in '17 he has a chance of losing his newly acquired rookie standout Mike Williams to a back injury prior to the season beginning. Though the details are unclear, it is trending towards Williams missing many games due to this issue and Philip Rivers once again will be at a disadvantage.

Being a Browns fan, two words constantly flow through my mind when football season is beginning, what if. Correlating that to Philip Rivers, what if he was in the shoes of Eli Manning, who now has two of the NFL's top WR options at his disposal? Or sitting pretty like Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan? Both with incredible WR and RB options. I let my mind wander to how great of a field general he could be with better options.

But, let's be honest here, he is already among the best QB's in our era. That statement may shock some folks, but he is an extremely underrated passer and he has the stats to prove it. He is #12 on the all time passing yards list with 45,833 and #8 on the passer rating list with a 94.7. These ranks place him among some of the greatest, past and present, such as Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. However, my mind just keeps relaying back to, what could he have been? Yes, his stats are incredible and should be celebrated. But, what could they have been if he had a wideout like Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, or Calvin Johnson? He had one of the best TE's of this era in Antonio Gates, and it is extremely visible how he flourished with that talent. But, considering his top targets in recent years have been Malcom Floyd, Vincent Jackson and a tattered Keenan Allen, we have never really had the opportunity to see what he could have been with incredible talent around him.