Do you remember the NFC Championship Game? The Philadelphia Eagles beat the San Francisco 49ers by 31-7. The final score could be impactful, but we have to remember that the 49ers lost two quarterbacks in the game. Thinking of that, the NFL teams' owners have passed a proposal to allow teams to have a third QB.
During the game that sent the Eagles to the Super Bowl, 49ers QB Brock Purdy (who was already the third quarterback of the team in the season) injured his elbow. Josh Johnson, the second quarterback of the game, suffered a concussion. RB Christian McCaffrey had a snap as quarterback before Purdy come back to the game.
He didn’t have any conditions to play but had to be there. Now, to avoid that from happening again, the league is trying to bring back an old rule. From 1991 to 2010, teams were allowed to dress up three quarterbacks in each game, without using a roster spot. Now they will be able to do that again.
The full proposal
One hour and 30 minutes prior to kickoff, each club is required to establish its Active List for the game by notifying the Referee of the players on its Inactive List for that game. Each club may also designate one emergency third quarterback from its 53-player Active/Inactive List (i.e., elevated players are not eligible for designation) who will be eligible to be activated during the game, if the club's first two quarterbacks on its game day Active List are not able to participate in the game due to injury or disqualification (activation cannot be a result of a head coach's in-game decision to remove a player from the game due to performance or conduct).
If either of the injured quarterbacks is cleared by the medical staff to return to play, the emergency third quarterback must be removed from the game and is not permitted to continue to play quarterback or any other position, but is eligible to return to the game to play quarterback if another emergency third quarterback situation arises.
A club is not eligible to use these procedures if it carries three quarterbacks on its game day Active List [47- or 48-players in 2023].
