Eagles Defense Spurs QB Rule Change, Allowing 3 To Be Active on Gameday

The Philadelphia Eagles defense was unblockable in last year's NFC title game. Knocking both San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks out with injury, Philly rendered the Niners helpless in a 31-7 blowout loss.

It may come to be known as the San Francisco 49ers rule, but it should be known as the Philadelphia Eagles rule, because, well, the former couldn’t block the latter’s record-setting defensive front.

The Eagles knocked both of the Niners quarterbacks out of last year's NFC Championship Game, so the NFL did something about it. The league will now allow teams to keep three quarterbacks active on game day.

The Eagles caused this. 

Or maybe it was the 49ers, whose offensive line was overwhelmed against an Eagles team that piled up 70 sacks in the regular season, which was the third-most in NFL history for a single year.

Edge rusher Haason Reddick knocked 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy out of the game with what turned out to be a torn UCL. Josh Johnson entered the game for Purdy, but he didn’t last long, either.

This time the 49ers were unable to keep defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh out of their backfield and it was Suh who belted Johnson, knocking him from the game with a concussion.

Running back Christian McCaffrey started warming up on the 49ers' sideline, but it was Purdy who returned to the game. His injury, though, made him incapable of throwing a forward pass.

Without any quarterbacks, or at least one who could no longer throw, the 49ers simply ran the ball throughout the second half. despite trailing by a wide margin.

The result was a 31-7 blowout win for the Eagles and a bunch of sour-grape 49ers players and fans blustering about how they would’ve beaten the Eagles if Purdy didn’t get hurt.

The NFL responded to the boohooing by changing the rule.

Here is the rule’s language:

One hour and 30 minutes prior to kickoff, each club is required to establish its 45-player Active List for the game by notifying the Referee of the players on its Inactive List for that game. Each club may also designate one emergency third quarterback from its 53-player Active/Inactive List (i.e., elevated players are not eligible for designation) who will be eligible to be activated during the game, if the club's first two quarterbacks on its game day Active List are not able to participate in the game due to injury or disqualification (activation cannot be a result of a head coach's in-game decision to remove a player from the game due to performance or conduct). 

If either of the injured quarterbacks is cleared by the medical staff to return to play, the emergency third quarterback must be removed from the game and is not permitted to continue to play quarterback or any other position, but is eligible to return to the game to play quarterback if another emergency third quarterback situation arises.

The rule change means the end of the emergency quarterback, who is usually a player who plays another position and would take over behind center if both quarterbacks were injured in the same game.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni never revealed to the media who his emergency quarterback was, deferring to his "competitive advantage" mantra.

The Eagles were in a similar situation to the 49ers back in 2019, but the NFL didn’t do anything about it when Carson Wentz was knocked out of a home playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks with a concussion in the first quarter.

He was replaced by Josh McCown, who was 40 at the time.

McCown suffered a torn hamstring shortly after entering, yet, the Eagles played on with him. The team’s third-string quarterback, Nate Sudfeld, was inactive. 

Sudfeld didn’t play a single game that season. He broke his wrist in the preseason but was able to return to the practice field after it healed.

The likely emergency quarterback vs. the Seahawks in that playoff game was probably receiver Greg Ward, a former college quarterback at the University of Houston.

Then-head coach Doug Pederson never turned to him, despite McCown's in-game injury.

McCown ended up taking 60 snaps (87%) that day. While he completed 18 of 24 passes for 174 yards, he was sacked six times and never could get the team into the end zone in what turned out to be a 17-9 loss.

The Eagles didn’t complain about not having a third quarterback available.

They moved on, though it was the last game McCown ever played in his 16-year career and he is now the quarterback coach for the Carolina Panthers.

Maybe the 49ers can move on now, too.

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Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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