The New Orleans Saints drew a lot of attention on Monday by changing the position listing for Taysom Hill on their official website roster. After being listed at tight end throughout the summer, he’s now grouped with the quarterbacks.
When asked about the change after practice, head coach Dennis Allen said that it was “more of a clerical thing than anything else,” rather than a reaction to the NFL’s new third-quarterback rule. Still, this change could be a factor during the season. He pointed out that Hill played about half his snaps at quarterback last year. The Saints like to get him involved in a number of different roles as a runner, receiver, passer and occasional blocker.
Hours after the change was noted on the Saints website, the NFL released a series of questions and answers clarifying eligibility for the rule, specifying that only bona fide quarterbacks factor into the decision. Here’s their description of what that means:
For the purposes of the Emergency Third Quarterback rule, a bona fide quarterback is defined as a player who wears a jersey number authorized for a quarterback and (a) is an established quarterback (e.g., someone who has customarily played the position in past professional or college seasons); or (b) is a player who takes regular-season snaps only at quarterback during at least three consecutive weeks of practice, including any week the player would be listed as an Emergency Third Quarterback.
Additionally, here are the eligibility rules for the emergency third quarterback:
- The Emergency Third Quarterback must be on the club’s 53-player roster; the player cannot be an elevated Practice Squad player. The club’s starting quarterback (QB1) and its backup quarterback (QB2) must also be on the club’s 53-player roster.
- A club must have two bona fide quarterbacks on its 47/48-player gameday active list to designate an Emergency Third Quarterback.
- A club cannot designate an Emergency Third Quarterback if it has three or more bona fide quarterbacks on its 47/48-player gameday active list
So this has more to do with Jake Haener than Taysom Hill; the rookie would be that emergency third passer they’re talking about. But what would it look like each week? Here are two examples:
Let’s say it’s a typical game week for the Saints. We’re in Week 1 and the top three quarterbacks are listed on the 48-man active roster: Derek Carr, Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill. Jake Haener is inactive, and because the Saints have three available quarterbacks, he wouldn’t be eligible to play. If Carr and Winston are both unavailable, Hill would get the nod.
Now we’re on to the next game, in a scenario where either Carr or Winston (or Hill) is not able to play. Because the Saints are down a man, they can now have Haener dress but not count against the 48-man active-roster limit. He’ll only be able to play if both quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart go down. But he will have that option.
At least that’s the idea in theory. The NFL hasn’t really painted a clearer picture than what we had earlier this offseason by overdoing this rule.
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