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Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff Writer
EAGAN, Minnesota — NFL owners approved a rule Monday that allows teams to appoint emergency quarterbacks on game days. The rule was reinstated following a quarterback shortage during the San Francisco 49ers’ loss to Philadelphia in last season’s NFC Championship Game. Eagles.
This rule only applies to quarterbacks on the team’s 53-man roster. Players on the practice team are not eligible to be emergency quarterbacks, even if they are promoted in that week’s game. However, this allowed the team to avoid counting the emergency quarterback as one of the active players on game day, otherwise they would have chosen to play the game with only two quarterbacks. A small incentive for the team.
Emergency quarterbacks are eligible to be activated during a game if the remaining quarterbacks on the team are unavailable due to injury or ejection, but not as a result of being on the bench. If one of the other quarterbacks is allowed to return to the game, the emergency quarterback must be removed at that time and may only return again if there is no other option.
The XFL and USFL applied similar rules this spring, and the NFL itself used them from 1991-2010. During collective bargaining with the NFL Players Association in 2011, both teams decided to increase the overall limit rather than the active player limit on game days. He puts it in one position.