Games
The Sam Francisco 49ers ended up playing without a healthy quarterback in the NFC Championship Game, and running back Christian McCaffrey was forced to fill in at quarterback.
A rule allowing teams to use a third quarterback on days when there are video games was approved at the league’s annual spring conference.
This is a return to the rule that allowed teams to have 45 players active and a designated backup quarterback between 1991 and 2010. The rule was changed in 2011 to only allow 46 players to be active, regardless of position.
Groups are currently required to have at least 8 active offending linemen.
A third quarterback who is qualified to play in an emergency will be designated, and teams will be allowed to have 46 active players under this new legislation.
If a team has three quarterbacks on its 53-man roster, all three may be offered under the new rule. A quarterback who has been raised to be eligible to play for the practise team is ineligible to serve as the designated quarterback in an emergency.
If one of the other two quarterbacks is injured or is disqualified during the game, the third quarterback, who is not included in the 46-man active game-day lineup, may still participate.
The emergency quarterback should leave the game after the third quarterback is still in it, and cannot return unless there is an injury or disqualification, even if one of the original two quarterbacks has been given permission to return.
For the Arizona Cardinals, what does this mean?
It means that if they want to use this, they must keep three quarterbacks in the starting 53-man lineup. Additionally, they would need to maintain 4 to have the emergency option if Kyler Murray is on the roster but isn’t ready to play.
Once the regular season begins, we’ll see how frequently the Cardinals actually use this.
On his podcast Rise Up, See Red, Cards Wire’s Jess Root provides the latest information. Subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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