Nick Sirianni On Philip Rivers' Trajectory, Michael Pittman Jr.'s Return

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» After using the bye week to evaluate the first six weeks of the season, Sirianni likes the trajectory of quarterback Philip Rivers: Through his first six games as the Colts' quarterback, Rivers has completed 138-of-198 passes (69.7 percent) for 1,598 yards with seven touchdowns to six interceptions for a quarterback rating of 93.0. He ranks sixth in the NFL in completion percentage, ninth in yards per attempt (8.1) and first in net yards per attempt (7.78). The Colts also rank 10th in the league with 37 pass plays of 15 yards or more, which was a huge emphasis coming into the season.


Last week's bye week gave everybody on the team, from players to coaches, an opportunity to take a step back and closely evaluate at least a couple points of emphasis from the first six weeks of the season, from what's been working to what needs work moving forward. Sirianni said he enjoyed getting some additional time with Rivers and quarterbacks coach Marcus Brady and really digging into the nuts and bolts of the offense.


"We went through a lot the things with Philip. Coach Brady had a great plan of what we were going to do as far as our position meeting with him," Sirianni said. "It was just a lot of give and take back and forth of what's working as a scheme, any fundamental thing, any decision-making thing. We just watched it together, dissected it together and that's always a fun time to be able to do that with your starting quarterback."


One of the primary reasons Rivers was signed this offseason was his familiarity with Sirianni and head coach Frank Reich, who had worked with the veteran quarterback as members of the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers' coaching staff a few years back. So while Rivers' re-introduction into Reich's playbook has been pretty seamless, Sirianni is confident that his production will only continue to get better this season as he gets more reps with his new teammates.


"I think that the timing that you create with your receivers, the timing and the communication that you have with your offensive line and your running backs, as far as protection goes – I just think through our first six games of our season, the trajectory and the path, we just continue to see the arrow go up because of just the amount of reps they have gotten together," Sirianni said. "I just think that that's going to continue to rise with the more and more reps that they get together. I just think the arrow is pointing up.


"We think (Rivers is) playing winning football and you see that even more as you look at the entire season as a whole," Sirianni continued.