Next man up

 Well. Now this gets interesting.

Philip Rivers has decided 17 seasons in the NASH-unal FOOT-ball League is enough,and you can send his mail to Canton, Ohio, from here on out. The man's a first-ballot HOFer, and don't start with the "Well, he never got to a Super Bowl" nonsense.

In any case, best wishes and bon voyage to one of the good guys. And now today's Final Jeopardy Answer: "Who the hell knows?"

The question: "Who will the Indianapolis Colts' next QB1 be?"

Lots of people more plugged in than the Blob think it will be Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions, and I suppose Frank Reich the Quarterback Whisperer could work with that. Sam Darnold's name has come up, now that a new regime is moving in to oversee the J-E-T-S Jets-Jets-Jets. Carson Wentz, because he flourished under Reich in Philly and hasn't since. Or do they roll the dice in the draft, even though they're not likely to get a franchise guy with the 21st pick and they just took a young QB (Jacob Eason) who's still in grooming mode?

Beats me. All I know is there are two guys who aren't going to be the next man up at the man-under-center spot.

One is Deshaun Watson.

The other is Andrew Luck.

Don't laugh. I've heard both names in the last 24 hours.

That Watson's term of office in Houston has ended is all but certain, and because dreamers will dream, some people have. The Colts probably have the dough to get him, and how sweet would that marriage be? The Quarterback Whisperer getting his mitts on one of the NFL most dynamic talents?

But, nah, there's no way. The Texans, while dumb enough to ruin their relationship with Watson, aren't quite dumb enough to trade him within the division. That would be some epic dumb right there.

And Luck?

Yeah, somebody threw his name out there, too, but I think he was kidding. Every person with a working brain cell knows Luck has moved on from football. He was way too smart to play the game until he could no longer walk or remember his name, and it's doubtful he's lost any of those smarts since he did. So, again, nah.

That brings us back to where this started, with Matthew Stafford.

He's no Luck and he's no Peyton Manning, and maybe he's not even a 38-year-old Philip Rivers. But he's pretty darn good, and occasionally has been more than that.

Which of course is the problem.

Almost 20 autumns with a generational talent at quarterback -- first Manning, then Luck until he got beat to hell -- tends to ruin you for Pretty Darn Good And Occasionally More.  It's the polar opposite of  the situation in Chicago, where Mitch Trubisky still has his job in part because the bar for quarterback play is so historically low.

I mean, when you're the lineal descendant of  Jack Concannon and Bob Avellini and Peter Tom Willis -- or even of Jim McMahon, who won a Super Bowl with the Bears largely by handing off to Sweetness and throwing go routes to Willie Gault -- no one expects a lot. It's not as if you have a lot to live up to.

In Indy, of course, there is Mount Rushmore to live up to: Peyton and Johnny U. and Bert Jones and even Luck when he was healthy. Or Rivers, along with Manning soon to be the second and third Colts Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

The next man up?

Whoever it is, he'll just have to do.