NFL Owners Approve Emergency QB Rule Addition

It has been discussed in the past, but on Monday, NFL owners voted to approve the emergency third quarterback plan ahead of the 2023 NFL season.

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

NASHVILLE  - Per a report from ESPN, NFL owners approved a rule on Monday that allows teams to designate an emergency quarterback on game day.

The rule allows each team to designate a third emergency quarterback who can be dressed but inactive and does not count against the 48-man gameday active list. 

From the ESPN report.

"The rule applies only to quarterbacks who are on a team's 53-man roster. Practice squad players are not eligible to be emergency quarterbacks, not even if they are elevated for that week's game. But it allows a team to avoid counting the emergency quarterback as one of its active players on game day, a modest incentive for teams who otherwise would have chosen to go into a game with only two available quarterbacks."

"The emergency quarterback would be eligible for in-game activation if the rest of a team's quarterbacks are unable to participate due to injury or ejection, but not as a result of a benching. If one of the other quarterbacks is cleared to return to the game, the emergency quarterback must be removed at that time and can only return if there is once again no other option."

Exactly how this will impact the Tennessee Titans is speculation. Still, with three quarterbacks currently on the roster, it would seem a simple solution would be to keep all three on their 53-man roster and have one as their designated emergency quarterback this season.

However, in the past, the Titans have carried just two quarterbacks among their 53 players, but with them being unable to use a practice squad player as that third quarterback and with the addition of this new emergency rule, head coach Mike Vrabel and other coaches across the league might have to reconsider their approach to the number of quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.   

The oddsmakers aren't high on the Titans this year. The gambling website Fanduel updated its odds after the draft, and the Titans have the 28th-longest odds — out of 32 NFL teams — to win the Super Bowl at 75-to-1. Tampa Bay has the same odds, and only three teams — Indianapolis (85-to-1), Houston (110-to-1) and Arizona (180-to-1) are bigger longshots.

They are 55-to-1 longshots just to win the AFC and 5.5-to-1 to win the AFC South, with Jacksonville the favorite. The Colts are Texans are behind, and everyone thinks this division, as a whole, is the worst in football. 

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