Rivers: The Most Underrated QB in the NFL?

There is an upper echelon of quarterbacks currently in the NFL made up of the likes of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger (when he's not busy screwing up his personal life), Michael Vick (ditto), Brett Favre (when he's not busy getting coaches fired due to his incompetence in old age), and maybe Jay Cutler (in some parallel universe, where he isn't as inconsistent as the day is long). It's relatively non-exclusive company, all things considered, and yet the San Diego Chargers' Philip Rivers is seldom mentioned in that same group of players.

"Worse than Ryan Leaf??? Who said that?"

Truth be told, he may just be mentioned in passing for the simple reason that he's forever tied to the Mannings for being the unlucky piece of meat that went the other way in the trade for Eli once upon a time. If that wasn't bad enough, the New York Giants' lack of faith in him was arguably justified with their Super Bowl victory a few years ago, with the younger Manning earning MVP honours. He will also never likely get adequate props for even playing his position competently thanks to Ryan Leaf forever setting the bar so very, very low. All anyone needs to say in response to an argument that Rivers is better than Leaf is: "so is everybody else." Case closed.

While it would be a stretch to make a solid argument that Rivers deserves to be recognized as the best right now, there is definitely one to be made that he is the most underrated. What he has accomplished over the last few weeks with the Chargers has been nothing short of amazing, his taking a 2-5 team on the cusp of irrelevance and bringing them back to .500 and into the playoff picture.

Now at 5-5, the Chargers are just one game back of the AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs. With six games left to be played, including one against the Chiefs in three weeks, San Diego could most definitely find itself on the inside looking out come the post-season. A Super Bowl berth is likely out of the question, but the team has come a long way considering how far back it was was a few short weeks ago at 2-4 with Pro Bowl wide-receiver Vincent Jackson forced to rethink his idiotic stance of holding out for a long-term deal only to be stuck with an incredibly short-term one worth six games. He's set to return to the line-up next week against the Indianapolis Colts.

What's truly impressive was Rivers's performance against the Broncos on Monday, with his four touchdowns. With his 233 passing yards in the game, he is now on pace for 5083 passing yards this season, one short of Dan Marino's record 5084. He has also had at least one touchdown pass in 23-straight games, the best right now in the league. In his last four games, he's thrown for 11 of his 23 on the season. Eli Manning has two fewer. What's probably more impressive is that Peyton has just 20.

The inevitable conclusion from all this (aside from the scewed view that Eli is actually better than his brother) is that Rivers just may be the runaway favourite MVP candidate, but only if he is able to carry his team into the playoffs. It's a realistic scenario to say the least. I mean, even Cutler's Chicago Bears are 7-3.