NFL needs to consider one rule change after 49ers debacle

The NFL needs to consider making one rule change after what happened with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Niners quarterback Brock Purdy suffered an elbow injury on the team’s opening drive in the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Backup quarterback Josh Johnson entered the game and replaced him.

But Johnson got hurt on the 49ers’ first possession of the third quarter and was knocked out with a concussion.

Having little choice with their options, the Niners re-inserted Purdy into the game even though he couldn’t throw more than a screen pass. Their other options were going to an emergency quarterback like Christian McCaffrey or Kyle Juszczyk.

The NFL has already figured out how important the quarterback position is to the league. They have made rule changes over the year to try to protect quarterbacks as much as possible. They also are very sensitive about concussion checks, which has led players to leave games with greater frequency than before. That’s why it makes little sense for them to play high-profile games with one team effectively having no quarterback; it’s bad for the product.

The league used to have emergency quarterbacks available for each team who could only play if the first two quarterbacks got hurt. But the league eschewed that policy in favor of having a 46th roster spot that they could just use on any player, regardless of position. Teams could choose to use the 46th spot on a third QB, but they don’t do it. They shouldn’t have to make that choice.

The NFL should just reinstate the emergency quarterback policy so games can continue without such a severe dropoff in competitiveness. They should allow each team to have their practice squad quarterback travel to each game and be available if the top two quarterbacks get injured.

We’re not saying that a practice squad quarterback would have helped the Niners come back from down 31-7, but at least another QB would have made the game more watchable and competitive.