Philip Rivers' first five games of 2018 are the best of his career

It used to be that quarterbacks were on their way out of the league by the time they were 36 years old. Now, the greats are getting better with age – including Philip Rivers, who has played brilliantly to start the Los Angeles Chargers’ 2018 season.

Simply put, Rivers is playing as well as he’s ever played, if not better. He has completed just over 70 percent of his passes for 1,495 yards, 13 touchdowns and two interceptions and a passer rating of 116.4 — his highest ever through the first five games of a season. He also had a nearly perfect game in Week 5 against the Oakland Raiders, even impressing the not-easily-impressed stats guys over at Pro Football Focus.

Rivers was 22 of 27 for 339 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions against the AFC West rival Raiders, completing more than 81 percent of his passes for the second time already this season. It’s worth noting that at this point just a year ago, he’d thrown nine TDs to five INTs and was completing fewer than 60 percent of his passes.

To put his success in 2018 into further perspective: Rivers is just the ninth QB in NFL history to have at least 13 TD passes and a passer rating of at least 115.0 through the first five games of a season – along with Tom Brady (twice), Kurt Warner (twice), Aaron Rodgers (twice), Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Dan Marino, Daunte Culpepper and Don Meredith.

In five of those seasons, the quarterback made it to the Super Bowl. Every player on that list went to the playoffs and all but one, Kurt Warner with the 2000 St. Louis Rams, made it to at least the divisional round. In other words, no quarterback has ever failed to make the postseason after starting the season the way that Rivers has.

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