We now know how serious Bills' chances are of hiring Philip Rivers as new head coach

The Buffalo Bills brought Philip Rivers in for a head coach interview.

It brought a lot of questions, but the main was this: Would they really hire Rivers as their replacement for Sean McDermott?

Turns out the answer is a resounding yes.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported on Sunday, “It is real. It is not a joke.”

On the one hand, this seems obvious. Rivers wouldn't have had any incentive to enter into this process if he didn't believe the interest to be real.

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On the other, it's a big deal. Rivers has never been a professional coach. He was coaching high school football at St. Michael Catholic in Alabama (with his son Gunner at QB) before he came out of retirement to start three games at the end of the 2025 season for the Indianapolis Colts.

Rivers, 44, has immense football acumen, and he also is known to have a great relationship with Bills QB Josh Allen.

There's a belief that Rivers would bring with him a great coaching staff.

It's also felt that Rivers spent much of the end of his NFL career pretty much calling the offense himself out on the field.

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He's got at least base-level head coaching experience thanks to his time at with a strong Alabama high school team. That's obviously not the NFL, but it could help situationally in certain spots.

He's got as good of a football mind as you could want. It'd be a risk for the Bills to hire Rivers, but it could be one worth taking.

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