Philip Rivers
Philip Rivers has been the starting quarterback of the Chargers for over a decade, and has not missed a game since taking over the starting job when Drew Brees left prior to the 2006 season, giving him the longest current streak of games started, and the third-longest of all time.
Rivers did not start a game in his first two seasons with San Diego, throwing a total of 30 passes while backing up Drew Brees. When Brees left as a free agent in 2006, Rivers was promoted and immediately became a strong player, leading the Chargers to a 14-2 record in his first season at the helm. They lost to New England in their first playoff game, however, wasting their best chance at a title.
He was pretty solid again the next season, leading the Chargers to another division title, and this time they won a couple playoff games, ultimately falling to the Patriots once again in the AFC title game, coming up just a game short of making the Super Bowl. It was revealed after the game that Rivers had played most of the game on a torn ACL, but he refused to abandon his team.
The following season was his best as a pro, as he threw for a league-leading 34 touchdowns and led the Chargers to their third straight division title, as well as an upset of Peyton Manning and the Colts in the wild card game. It was also the first time he eclipsed 4000 yards, something he has done 9 more times since.
Over the course of his career he has also slowly taken over most of the Chargers franchise passing records, many of them from Dan Fouts. He set the team record for TD passes in a season in 2008, topping Fouts by one, then took the single-game passing yardage record from him in 2010 when he recorded 455. In 2015 he took the career TD record, and in 2016 the career yardage record.
He has also led the league in passing yards once, with 4710 in 2010, and completion percentage, at 69.5% in 2013. He has reached 4000 yards 10 times, and 30 touchdowns 6 times, while winning 4 division titles and starting every game for 13 straight seasons. While he has only made it to the conference title game once in his career, he has still been so good for so long that he has earned the right to sit ahead of the man whose records he keeps surpassing.
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