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.
