In last year's NFC Championship Game, the San Francisco 49ers had to play the second half essentially without a quarterback once starter Brock Purdy and backup Josh Johnson both got hurt. Predictably, it was a mess. As a result, the NFL has introduced a new rule ahead of the 2023 season, allowing teams to designate an “emergency” quarterback who doesn't count against their game day roster. The so-called emergency quarterback rule was previously in place from 1991-2010, but was abolished once game day rosters expanded from 45 to 46 players. While most teams don't need a third active quarterback, Broncos coach Sean Payton believes the return of this rule will have an interesting effect on how teams compose their roster.
“If you carry three on your 53[-man roster], you get a [third on] game day,” Sean Payton said during a press conference at the Broncos OTAs. “Let’s say what happened to San Francisco was a once in every seven year occurrence. Each team will then have to decide if they want to continue to have two and get an additional player other than a quarterback on their 53. Everyone has three in the building — a lot of times on the practice squad. I think team-by-team, it will vary.”
Here, Payton touches on the interesting paradox of the emergency quarterback rule. The point of the rule is to reduce the opportunity cost of dressing a third quarterback for each game, but it still forces teams to weigh the relative benefits of rostering a third quarterback. To be able to capitalize on the new rule, teams will have to include three quarterbacks on their roster, thereby having one fewer spot at another position.
It'll be interesting to see how Payton navigates this math problem. In New Orleans, he converted Taysom Hill into the league's most valuable and versatile third string quarterback, using him as a hybrid quarterback/tight end/wide receiver/running back/special teamer. With the Broncos, though, Payton merely has regular quarterbacks, for now at least.
The Broncos enter the 2023 season with Russell Wilson as their starter, but they made several moves to improve their quarterback depth in case Wilson can't rebound from his cruddy 2022 season. Over the offseason, Sean Payton and the Broncos added three new quarterbacks, signing veteran backups Jarrett Stidham, Jarrett Guarantano and XFL standout Ben DiNucci
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