Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) fakes a handoff Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, during practice at the Colts training facility in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Colts are unofficially going retro on Sunday.

The team promoted recently signed 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers from its practice squad Saturday ahead of its Week 15 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. According to NFL Media, Rivers will also start his first NFL game in nearly five years − against the league's second-ranked scoring defense at Lumen Field, historically one of the loudest and most raucous environments in the NFL.

The promotion officially resets Rivers' Hall of Fame clock. He was a semifinalist for Canton in 2026 but now won't be eligible again for another five years.

In a corresponding roster move, Indianapolis placed offensive tackle Braden Smith on injured reserve.

The development hardly comes as a surprise given the Colts' unconventional decision to lure Rivers out of retirement following the team's rash of injuries behind center − most notably the Achilles tear Daniel Jones suffered last Sunday. In an ironic twist, Jones (and the league) permitted Rivers to wear his customary No. 17, which had been worn all season by the Giants castoff.

Following a 7-1 start that had propelled them to the top of the AFC South, the Colts have lost four of five and officially fell out of the conference's projected playoff field last weekend. But the team had already signaled its intent for a Super Bowl push with general manager Chris Ballard's November acquisition of All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets. Now it's up to Rivers, a close friend of head coach Shane Steichen, who also served on the Chargers staff for years when he played for the Bolts, to get Indianapolis where it hasn't been in nearly two decades.

"As simple as can be, a coach that I love and an organization that I really enjoyed being with," Rivers said this week of his decision to return.

He was also coy about his playing weight, but admitted it wasn't the same as it was in January of 2021, his most recent NFL start and also the last time the Colts appeared in the postseason.

"They wanted me," Rivers said of returning to the last team he played for, one that still has more than a dozen of his teammates from the 2020 squad.

"A game I love to play. A game that I thought I was done playing certainly − I wasn't really hanging onto any hope of playing again. I'd kinda thought that ship had sailed.

"But something about it excited me. Kinda one of those deals − a door opens, and you can either walk through it and find out if you can do it or run from it."

Full speed ahead.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Philip Rivers to start Sunday for Colts against Seahawks, per report

Reporting by Nate Davis, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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