In last January’s NFC Conference Championship, the San Francisco 49ers had just one available player they trusted to throw the football more than six yards downfield. That was Christian McCaffrey, who while very talented as all things football is decidedly not a quarterback.
Injuries to starter Brock Purdy and backup Josh Johnson (following regular season injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo) left the Niners in a desperate situation. As a result, San Francisco scored zero second half points and the Philadelphia Eagles ran away with a 31-7 victory that pushed them to Super Bowl 57.
This was a disaster for 49ers fans and anyone just hoping for a competitive game between the conference’s top two teams. This offseason, the NFL took a step in hopes of preventing it from ever happening again. In 2023, teams will be allowed to dress a third, designated emergency quarterback who won’t count against the club’s mandated 46-man roster limit on game day.
Following the 49ers' QB disaster in the NFC Championship Game, NFL owners today approved a modification to game day rules and will allow for a designated emergency third QB from its inactive list. Details: pic.twitter.com/9II7mV8iBJ
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) May 22, 2023
That rule won’t change much for most teams and wouldn’t have helped the 49ers last year. San Francisco only had two passers active last January — Purdy and Johnson — with Jacob Eason serving a role outside the 53-man roster as part of the team’s practice squad. Only members of the active roster can be designated, which excludes practice squad call-ups.
This isn’t a new concept for the NFL. It was a part of roster management from 1991 to 2010 and ensured teams couldn’t insert their third string quarterback without having to disqualify their starter and backups from returning to the game. This 2023 revival isn’t as harsh; if either the first or second-string passers are cleared to return on game day, they have to replace the emergency option as soon as possible.
It’s a rule that nods in the NHL’s general direction, only in a boring way. An emergency backup goalie (EBUG) is designated by the home team to fill in in case either team loses its two rostered goaltenders during a game. In these situations, the EBUG is a non-professional player with no formal ties to any NHL team.
This revived rule gives the NFL its EBUG option back, just in a much less fun way. Instead of watching some eager Division III veteran attempt to navigate the playbook while getting walloped by opposing pass rushes we’ll get a handful of semi-notable veterans and developmental young players taking snaps in case of disaster.
Which is obviously better for everyone involved, even if it deprives the world of watching some recent Carnegie Mellon grad come in to take snaps for the Steelers.
