Six weeks ago, Ryan Clark called Philip Rivers’ comeback incompetent and irresponsible. On Friday, he said he’d love to see Rivers coach the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills are interviewing Rivers for their head coaching vacancy, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Buffalo fired Sean McDermott on Monday after a divisional round loss to Denver, and Rivers is among the candidates meeting with the team.
The 44-year-old Rivers went 0-3 in three starts for the Colts last month after Indianapolis brought him out of retirement to replace Daniel Jones. He’s never coached at the college or professional level.
And yet, Clark made his pitch for Rivers on First Take Friday morning.
“I would like Philip Rivers as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. I’d actually love it,” Clark said. “If you’re not going to move right to Joe Brady, I’d rather you go Philip Rivers and step totally away from these recycled, failed-up head coaches that we are interviewing, or that we are looking at, and step into something new. We’ve seen a guy like John Harbaugh never be a coordinator and make an excellent head coach because you understand how to delegate, you understand how to lead, you understand how to communicate.”
“I would like Philip Rivers as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, I’d actually love it.” – Ryan Clark pic.twitter.com/Sf3INcCcPY
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 23, 2026
Harbaugh spent nine years as the Philadelphia Eagles’ special teams coordinator before Baltimore hired him in 2008. Rivers spent the last five years coaching high school football in Alabama. Clark somehow sees them as similar paths.
The case for Rivers, according to Clark, comes down to what he showed during the three December starts with Indianapolis. Not his performance on the field, but how he carried himself afterward.
“What Philip Rivers showed us when he stepped onto the field for the Indianapolis Colts is, ‘I get it. I understand it. I could figure it out. If I basically wasn’t throwing the football with my left hand, we would’ve won football games because I understood how to diagnose defenses. I understood how to get people to play for me, how to lead,'” Clark said. “You heard Philip Rivers after that game. I didn’t even care how he played against Seattle. I didn’t care that he didn’t complete a ball over 16 yards. All I care about is the way I felt motivated, the way I felt led, the way I wanted to see him again at that podium.”
Rivers went 18-of-27 for 120 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in his first start against Seattle. He didn’t complete a pass longer than 16 yards. Indianapolis lost that game and the next two. Rivers threw better in those games — 277 yards against San Francisco, 147 against Jacksonville — but the results stayed the same.
That doesn’t concern Clark. Rivers’ leadership at the podium convinced him the 44-year-old could handle an NFL head coaching job. That’s a dramatic reversal from Dec. 12, when the Colts first announced they were signing Rivers out of retirement.
“I believe this is incompetent,” Clark said on First Take that day. “And I also believe it is irresponsible. This is not Michael Jordan coming back to play basketball after three years off for the Washington Wizards. This is a man in Philip Rivers who was always a stationary target, taking five years off to coach high school football and then coming back to play against the Seattle Seahawks, who would get after your keester if you were freaking Michael Vick.”
Ryan Clark on the Colts potentially starting Phillip Rivers: “… I believe this is incompetent. And I also believe it is irresponsible. This is not Michael Jordan coming back to play basketball after three years off for the Washington Wizards. This is a man in Phillip Rivers who… pic.twitter.com/rRhJtUhT8Z
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 12, 2025
Clark defended Colts backup Riley Leonard and said even if Rivers played well and stayed healthy, he wouldn’t retract his statement. Six weeks later, Clark wants Rivers to coach an NFL team.
“Head coaching — and we talked about this when Jeff Saturday was taken right from this desk to be the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. I get how it worked out. We saw what happened in the first week,” Clark said. “It’s about who can Philip Rivers bring along with him and how can he get Josh Allen to play at the highest level. Who’s your defensive coordinator? Who’s your offensive coordinator? I believe that Philip Rivers, right now, along with like a young Sean McVay, and some of these coaches they took fliers on to be head coaches, would be a very good head coaching candidate.”
Three postgame press conferences convinced Ryan Clark that Philip Rivers should coach an NFL team. The Bills now have to decide if that’s enough for them.
The post Ryan Clark wants Philip Rivers as Bills head coach: ‘I’d actually love It’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.
