{"id":446396,"date":"2026-02-03T10:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/446396\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:46:13","slug":"why-philip-rivers-backed-out-of-bills-coaching-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/446396\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Philip Rivers backed out of Bills’ coaching search"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philip Rivers was truly a strong candidate for the Buffalo Bills\u2019 head coaching job.<\/a><\/p>\n

The position was instead filled by offensive coordinator Joe Brady<\/a> on Jan. 27, but Rivers, the 18-year NFL quarterback, interviewed with the Bills during the process. <\/p>\n

Newly-appointed team president Brandon Beane told the 44-year-old Rivers after their meeting that \u201cI\u2019ll be surprised if you\u2019re not in the mix at the end,\u201d the Buffalo News reported Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IndianapolisPhilip Rivers pulled out of the Bills\u2019 head-coaching search. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Rivers\u2019 interview went \u201cgreat,\u201d according to Beane, though the team president warned him of the all-in challenges of a job like this. And Rivers\u2019 commitment to his family \u2014 his wife Tiffany and 10 kids \u2014 was the main hurdle for the two sides. <\/p>\n

According to the paper, Rivers called Beane a few days later and informed him he wasn\u2019t sure if he could fully commit to the position and backed out. <\/a><\/p>\n

If the Bills had hired Rivers, it would been quite the wild-card selection. <\/p>\n

Rivers played 16 seasons with the Chargers from 2004-19, making eight Pro Bowls and all but setting himself up to become a future Hall of Famer. He retired in 2020 after spending his final season with the Indianapolis Colts.<\/p>\n

The quarterback added an unexpected chapter to his NFL journey in December when he shockingly returned to the Colts<\/a> following Daniel Jones\u2019 season-ending Achilles injury.<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon Beane at a recent Bills press conference. AP<\/p>\n

Rivers, who has been coaching high school football at St. Michael Catholic in Alabama, went 0-3 with Indianapolis, but finished with 544 yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Unlike the other candidates, Rivers has zero NFL coaching experience.<\/p>\n

Others who interviewed for the Bills\u2019 job included former Giants head coach Brian Daboll <\/a>and former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, the latter of whom was fired after the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Former Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn, Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver were among other candidates.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Brady served as Buffalo\u2019s offensive coordinator for the past two-plus seasons and had been the team\u2019s quarterbacks coach from 2021-\u201922. <\/p>\n

He succeeds Sean McDermott, who was fired in January<\/a> after the Bills\u2019 crushing divisional round loss to the Broncos. <\/p>\n

McDermott posted a 98-50 regular-season record across nine seasons, but held an 8-8 mark in the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philip Rivers was truly a strong candidate for the Buffalo Bills\u2019 head coaching job. The position was instead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1807,126803,349,23712,73623,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-446396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-buffalo-bills","9":"tag-joe-brady","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-philip-rivers","12":"tag-sean-mcdermott","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}