Among changes adjusting the rules for hip-drop tackles and kickoff procedures, the NFL has reportedly made a rule change that pertains to emergency quarterbacks. According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the league “will now allow teams to promote a practice squad QB to the active roster for gamedays as an emergency third QB an unlimited amount of times during a season.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced frequent, temporary absences on rosters all across the NFL, the league passed a rule allowing each team two practice squad elevations per week. The two players would join the active roster for that week’s contest then revert back to the practice squad, negating the need to sign each player to a 53-man contract, release them after each game, then re-sign them to the practice squad.
Each practice squad player was able to be elevated up to three times in a single contract. A team could work around that rule by signing a player to the active roster for a fourth game, then releasing them (often subjecting younger players to the waiver wire) and re-signing them to a new practice squad contract that would allow for another three promotions.
Last year, the NFL passed a rule that would allow a team to dress a third, emergency quarterback to the active roster for each game, one more than previously allowed on the active roster. This was a result of games like the 2022 NFC Championship Game, in which the 49ers saw both their dressed quarterbacks, Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson, suffer injuries. In order to utilize the new rule, though, teams had to stash this third quarterback as a member of their 53-man roster, taking up a valuable active roster spot.
It was the Bills, according to Mike Florio of NBC Sports, who proposed a slight adjustment to the emergency quarterback rule, suggesting that teams have a third practice squad elevation each week solely dedicated to elevating a practice squad passer into the emergency role. The competition committee didn’t accept Buffalo’s proposal, but it did decide to pass its own version.
The committee’s version of the new rule will require the emergency quarterback to be one of the two weekly elevations. That said, it will allow quarterbacks to be immune from the three-game limitation set on other players, allowing them to be elevated an unlimited number of times. The committee also added the stipulation that, should an injured quarterback be cleared to return, the emergency quarterback put in play to replace them must leave the game.
This obviously offers a major benefit to general managers who can return to the standard of keeping only two passers on the active roster, allowing them to replace that roster spot with a non-QB player. This new strategy does come with a potential risk, though. Keeping your emergency quarterback on the practice squad allows any other team in the league to sign them directly to their active roster from your practice squad. It will be interesting to see how many teams take this option and how many avoid the above-mentioned risk by keeping three quarterbacks on the active roster.
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