After Brock Purdy‘s injury effectively removed any drama regarding the NFC championship game’s outcome, the NFL will allow teams a notable protection measure against the kind of situation the 49ers ran into in January.
The league will now allow teams to dress an emergency third quarterback, approving a proposal to bring this rule back Monday, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Teams usually dress only two quarterbacks, allowing an extra roster spot for another player — one more likely to be needed — as part of their 48-man gameday contingent. A wrinkle to this arrangement will be reintroduced this coming season.
For a team to be able to use its emergency quarterback, the first two must be physically unable to play. Teams will not be able to stash a third quarterback on their roster and turn to him in a benching scenario involving either of its top QBs, Field Yates of ESPN.com adds (via Twitter).
Additionally, all emergency QBs must be on teams’ active rosters. None can be summoned from practice squads during a game. Teams will, however, be able to designate their emergency passer 90 minutes before kickoff. Should one of the team’s top two QBs be deemed healthy enough to return to a game, the emergency QB must be yanked.
Teams, of course, could have still dressed a third quarterback under the previous format. But clubs generally steered against doing so in order to better protect themselves against injuries at other positions depleting depth charts. Active rosters can include up to 55 players on gamedays, with teams being able to bump two up from the practice squad each week. Third-string quarterbacks are often part of the 55-man contingent but are regularly among the seven who do not dress for games. Some teams only carry two QBs on their active roster. That will need to change if a franchise wants to take advantage of this emergency protection measure.
This became a problem for the 49ers, who saw Purdy suffer a torn UCL during the first quarter of the NFC title game. That injury summoned journeyman Josh Johnson, whom the 49ers signed off the Broncos’ practice squad in the wake of Jimmy Garoppolo‘s December foot fracture. Johnson, who served as Purdy’s backup down the stretch, suffered a third-quarter concussion that brought a compromised Purdy back into the game. The 49ers not dressing a third QB led to them essentially playing out the string, with Purdy repeatedly handing off or throwing short passes in the Eagles’ blowout win.
The 49ers lost four QBs to injury last season. Trey Lance‘s fractured ankle in Week 2 began the team down this path, one that turned out to affect the entire NFL for the 2023 season. The league allowed teams this flexibility from 1991-2010, but the past two CBAs did not include the rule. One team’s historic injury run at the sport’s marquee position will lead to a mid-CBA amendment.
If you have to rely on the third depth player at any position you obviously don’t have an ideal situation. The NFL has a rules addiction but is this one really needed? I’d like them to create a rule that forces teams to attempt a 2 pt conversion where succeeding would give them the lead. Too many games going into overtime.
It’s due to injuries not reliance in a third depth player.
Yes, injuries force coaches to rely on depth players they’d rather not, but if your dependent on a third stringer at LT, C or TE your probably in just as much trouble as being on a third QB.
I thought the rule always said the first 2 QB’s had to be INJURED and couldn’t return to the game anyway. So what’s freakin difference? They gonna have an MRI machine on the field to make sure they’re hurt? Typical NFL BS. Trying to make a rule that should be simple totally complicated. Un-freakin-believable.
That was the rule, they did away with it years ago, but due to the 49ers mishandling they’re bringing it back. Teams have always been able to dress 3 QBs but decided they’d rather use that roster spot on another position.
Because teams like the Niners will dress 53 players but still only dress 2 QBs so they could use that other slot on a player in a different position rolling the dice they wouldn’t need 3 QBs.
It isn’t just the 49ers…Most teams do this, especially the more stacked rosters. It is pretty common to only dress your starting QB and your backup.
Besides, in this scenario, could anyone really have foreseen that they’d have to end up going to a FIFTH QB, because a team had already lost four others QBs that season and two in that game!?!
More reason why they should’ve dressed 3. But dressing an extra lineman or DB was more important to them.
It’s more important to nearly every team then considering nearly no one dresses 3 QBs come Sunday..
Yeah, 1 regular season game of 17 is the same as 1 lose and go home playoff game.
Once again, it’s something every team does all season long. Including playoffs. Who is going to not dress a 6th CB against the best QB in the NFC in favor of a 3rd QB who 99.99% of the time isn’t going to take a single snap? Arm chair coach you are, thank God for whatever team you watch that you have absolutely no say, in anything.
Yes genius, everyone does it all season long in regular season games, all 17 of them. If they get caught off guard and need QB3 they get him in place as soon as that game is over and it’s off to need week. When you are banged up at QB and in a do or die situation like the playoffs, just dress 2 guys so you can dress a backup special teamer and then when it goes wrong and your season is over whine so the league reinstates an old rule to save you from yourself.
Once again, thank GOD you’re in charge of nothing. When a team is ‘banged up and needs QB3’ they typically don’t dress QB1 who isn’t going to play, therefore, there’s still only 2 dressed QB’s….
Sure genius, so on gameday the depth chart doesn’t have a QB1 or even QB2 on the 2-deep, they just start at QB3. Damn you’re dense! Run along and have an adult explain to you what dressing 3 QBs on gameday entails, you can call them QB1, QB7, QB9999 for all I care, but you should dress 3 especially when the first 2 are banged up.
Can you read? Honest question
Reading your idiotic responses that make no sense.
Obviously not then. The answer was no.
Brilliant! Keep up the great work!
Just doing God’s work buddy.
God’s work, like praying for those unfortunate souls (such as yourself) that just don’t realize how short on smarts they are or how annoying they are to other sharing this space here.
God’s work bud, God’s work. If you’re so easily triggered, maybe you shouldn’t be here? You were wrong, so what? Take it on the chest and move on, mom & pops never taught you that?
…One of the first lessons taught in life, yet it is one of the least practiced…
Sure thing “MyCommentIsDumber”, not wrong at all, they should’ve dressed 3 QBs so now the league will make that easier on them going forward. And I’m not easily triggered at all, just feel sorry for you.
This rule had been proposed by the Lions.
Taking a head coaches strategy away isn’t a good strategy.
I think that comment sounds funniest when it comes from the mouth of Hue Jackson or Matt Patricia.
I never have been able to understand why this rule is needed. Why not just make all 53 rostered players active? Then you can just keep a third QB on the 53 man roster and not have to make weird exceptions
Because then you don’t have to pay 5 players their
“game day roster bonus.”
I believe most, if not all,
contacts include these.
Some for give money!
A good way for teams to
save a few bucks on a
slumping high paid starter
brcause El Cheapo owners!
And/or underperforming players.
Well, yes, those too.
Anyone who is slumping…..
The rule is used to minimize the advantage a team might gain if they have fewer injured players than their opponent that week.
They should make all 53 active and should always dress a 3rd qb. Stupid not to do both. They have plenty of money to afford both. QUALITY AND SAFETY should be their main concerns. They have the $$$$$!
In the 49ers’ case, I believe Garoppolo was on the sideline and was a late decision not to activate. If this rule had been in place, he could have come in while the Niners still had an outside chance.
This is a good rule to have, but I think teams should learn their lessons from what happened to the Broncos a couple years ago and the 49ers this past season and keep a player beyond their starter and backup on their active roster who at least has a college QB background.
The Niners rolled the dice and screwed up, so now the NFL will re-install an old rule to save other dumb franchises from themselves. They should’ve dressed 3 QBs but would rather dress a 6th DB than a 3rd QB thinking they wouldn’t need him.
The NFL needs it’s own version of hockey’s (insane) EBUG rule.
Emergency Back Up Goalie.
Teams stash random local college kids or equipment managers or (most famously) zamboni drivers who come into actual NHL games and play goal.
It’s actually really cool when it happens.
A few random guys have won games and got to live a dream for a night.
true but I think ppl would get killed
Most leagues have rules against dragging in players from their staff now because they don’t want it to be a place to stash reserves. During the first COVID season, the Broncos petitioned the league to allow two of their assistant coaches with college QB experience to be allowed to play when their entire QB room was ruled ineligible due to close contact with Jeff Driskel who tested positive. There was no time to sign a QB from the outside in time to play the game due to quarantine rules. So they were forced to bring up a WR, Kendall Hinton, from the practice squad who had been a QB at Wake Forest. It didn’t work out too well for them.
We love the EBUG.
Maybe for a player safety rule change a coach shouldn’t be allowed to have a backup TE try to block Hassan MFin’ Reddick!!!
Kyle Shannahan officially saved from future incompetence…in this one particular area.
Shannahan wins alot of games but makes alot of costly decisions that cost him every big game
The 49ers refuse to block for their 3rd and 4th string QBs in a playoff game. So they make a rule that you can pull another bad QB up, to get beat up, if the other 2 go down…
In the meantime they let one of the their only 2 competent Offensive Lineman go in free agency, so we can go through this whole charade again this year when their QBs get hurt.
This reminds me of the Tom Tupa game for the Jets. And the time the Eagles could’ve used an emergency QB against the Seahawks in the playoffs after Wentz got concussed and Josh McCown came in, tore his hamstring, and then had to finish the game.
They ought call it the FortyWhiners rule!
Benefits Niners, Jets and Titans.
It benefits lots of teams with the frequency of concussions. There were 68 different starting QBs last season and several more who got into games.