Tag: Emergency Quarterback

Derek Carr’s Week 8 injury designation is a bit misleading

Saints QB Derek Carr is doubtful not because there’s a chance he can start in Week 8, but rather to keep the door open in case of emergency:

Derek Carr began throwing the football over the weekend and had a few more throwing sessions this week. New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen is on record saying Carr playing this week was unlikely, but don’t allow Carr’s injury designation to make you think hope is still alive.

The Saints listed Carr as doubtful for one reason. They want to have the option to name him the emergency quarterback. If Carr was ruled out ahead of the game, he wouldn’t be able to assume this role.

Spencer Rattler is the starter and Jake Haener will be his backup. Carr’s ability to be the emergency quarterback is a good sign for his recovery, but it does not mean he’s healthy enough to start a full game and throw 20 or 30 passes. Allen has said before that his issues are mechanical, not related to pain tolerance. If there’s a hitch in his windup or some limited range of motion or torque, it could be disastrous.

Russell Wilson was the Steelers’ emergency quarterback for weeks before becoming the starting quarterback when he was healthy enough to play. That is essentially what this would be if Carr was the emergency quarterback in Week 8.

The Saints went through this process last week, but ultimately opted to make Carr inactive on game day. Still, they kept the door open, and that’s what they’re trying to do now.

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Surprisingly unsurprising: Russell Wilson is emergency QB for Week 5

Russell Wilson, for the fifth straight week, will serve not as Pittsburgh’s starter or backup QB, but as the emergency option.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  From winning Super Bowl XLVIII to being selected for nine Pro Bowl appearances, Russell Wilson seemed to be on the fast track to redemption.  An aggravated calf injury barely held Russell Wilson out of the Steelers regular season debut last month on September 8th.  Almost a month later, the missed games seem less like precautionary measures, and more or less to allow Justin Fields to continue to lead the team without controversy.

Gerry Dulac, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reported that for the fifth straight week, Wilson will serve as the team’s emergency quarterback in case starting QB Justin Fields and backup QB Kyle Allen both go down with injury.

Is there something here that Steelers fans, including myself, just aren’t seeing? Is this some sort of elaborate plot to keep Wilson’s value as a starting-caliber NFL QB intact, even though he has indeed lost the starting job to Fields?

As the Pittsburgh Steelers’ prepars for their Sunday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys, all eyes will be on Fields and his ability to keep Wilson at bay.

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Spencer Rattler is the Saints’ emergency QB again in Week 2

Saints rookie Spencer Rattler is the team’s emergency third quarterback again in Week 2. Jake Haener is still Derek Carr’s primary backup:

The New Orleans Saints decided to name Jake Haener the initial backup quarterback for their Week 1 game against the Carolina Panthers. That will remain the same in Week 2, as Spencer Rattler is technically inactive, but he will remain in the “emergency” QB3 role for the Saints. He won’t get into the game unless both Haener and Derek Caarr are incapacitated.

This comes after a preseason where Rattler showed flashes of impressive play, but maybe not enough to lift himself over Haener, who had an extra season of experience with the team to work with Carr. If Carr goes down the coaches would rather put Haener into a game than the rookie.

Rattler joins six other Saints on the inactive list including Marshon Lattimore, A.T. Perry, Khalen Saunders, D’Marco Jackson, Jaylan Ford, and Dallin Holker, many of whom were on this week’s injury report. Lattimore is somewhat surprising given he played Week 1, but also not too shocking as he did not practice throughout the course of the week and was listed as questionable. He was pushing to play but the coaches want him to fully recover after pulling his hamstring last Sunday.

We will see how things progress for Rattler as the season goes along, and maybe he can win the QB2 spot from Haener at some point, but for now he will remain as the emergency backup.

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Keeping 3 QBs gives Broncos game-day roster flexibility

NFL teams can have an emergency third QB not count against the 48-player game-day roster limit. For the Broncos, that’s Zach Wilson.

The Denver Broncos opted to carry three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster this year: Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson all made the squad.

“Yeah, we think highly of the quarterback room,” Broncos general manager George Paton said Tuesday. “I really liked the process. I thought the competition brought out the best in really all of the quarterbacks. All these guys support each other, they compete and they work well together. We looked at last year [and] I think almost half the league kept three quarterbacks. With the rule changes, we think that number will increase.”

The rule change that Paton referenced: NFL teams are limited to 48 players dressing on game days (47 if fewer than eight offensive linemen dress). Teams who carry three quarterbacks on the active roster, though, can have an emergency third QB available on game days without him counting against the 48-player limit. So carrying a third QB on the active roster gives the team more flexibility with the game-day roster.

“Last year, I think 13 or 14 teams had three [quarterbacks] and then the remaining teams had two and one on the practice squad,” coach Sean Payton said Wednesday. “The exercise in your 53 [players] and your practice squad is really holding onto your assets. Guys you really feel that are talented. Certainly, that applies to ‘Stiddy’ and Zach very much so.”

Had Denver cut either one of Stidham or Wilson, they likely would have been picked up by another team this week.

“We’re glad to have all three,” Paton said. “In regard to Bo, he’s earned the opportunity to be the starter. We’ve talked about it multiple times. Just the poise, the maturity and efficiency that he’s operated on the offense has been impressive. We know like every rookie, he is going to have ups and downs, but we’ll support him through that. We’re confident in Bo and just look forward to his continued growth and development.

“With Zach, we knew Zach was really talented. We didn’t know the person. We love the day-to-day with Zach and we love the person. He’s smart and [has] all the intangibles. He obviously played well and he moved the team, and ‘Stiddy’ did as well. We like our group.”

Nix is set to start when the Broncos face the Seattle Seahawks on the road in Week 1 on Sunday, Sept. 8. Stidham will presumably be the primary backup, and Wilson will be available in case of emergency without counting against the 48-player game-day roster limit.

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NFLPA vetoes NFL’s emergency 3rd QB rule change; what does it mean for Zach Wilson?

The NFLPA vetoed the NFL’s rule to give practice squad QBs a game-day roster exemption, another good sign for Zach Wilson to make the 53.

Last year, the NFL introduced a new rule that allowed an emergency third-string quarterback to not count against a team’s game-day roster limit. There was a catch, though. The QB was only eligible if he was on the 53-man roster — practice squad QBs were not a loophole.

This year, the NFL intended to revise the rule to allow QBs to be elevated from the practice squad an unlimited amount of times during the season (the limit for other positions is three elevations). The NFLPA has vetoed that rule change, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

“Allowing teams to elevate the third QB each week would have amounted to a sort of legal stashing, which the union doesn’t want,” Pelissero tweeted on Monday. “Of course, teams can still elevate an extra QB from the practice squad — they just wouldn’t get an exemption from the game-day roster limit.”

So, how does this impact the Denver Broncos?

If coach Sean Payton wants to have an emergency third quarterback not count against the game-day roster limit, that quarterback needs to be on the 53-man roster. That’s good news for third-string quarterback Zach Wilson.

Wilson might not have cleared waivers even if the Broncos did try to drop him down to the practice squad, and Payton has already indicated Denver plans to carry all three QBs — Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Wilson — on the active roster this season.

If there was any question that Wilson’s spot might be in jeopardy, though, the NFLPA not allowing a practice squad emergency QB should secure him a place on the Broncos’ 53-man roster this fall.

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Who was Chiefs’ emergency quarterback in AFC divisional round?

The #Chiefs running the triple-option offense? It could have happened in the AFC divisional round had Chad Henne been injured.

When Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes went down against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC divisional round, backup quarterback Chad Henne came into the game for basically the entire second quarter. Henne was masterful, leading a 98-yard touchdown drive. But what would have happened at the quarterback position if the unthinkable were to happen and Henne were to exit that game with an injury?

The Chiefs have a number of former quarterbacks on their roster. Whether they played in high school or college. Previously, Travis Kelce has been the emergency backup for Kansas City as a former high school and college quarterback. After his interception against the Giants back in Week 11 of the 2017 NFL season, it seems that Andy Reid has soured on that idea.

Against the Jaguars, Reid told reporters there would have been a different emergency quarterback.

“Yeah, we’ve got a couple (of) guys there that have played quarterback in college,” Reid said. “Number one (Jerick McKinnon) was one of them. It would’ve probably been number one up.”

An offense featuring McKinnon would have looked vastly different than the one featuring Mahomes or Henne. McKinnon was a triple-option quarterback at Georgia Southern, with the majority of his success and production coming in the ground game. He rushed for 3,899 rushing yards and 42 touchdowns during his four-year career. He completed just 31 passes on 72 attempts for 805 yards and 12 touchdowns with four interceptions.

Hopefully, the Chiefs are never put in a situation where they need to deploy McKinnon as the emergency quarterback, but it’s certainly fun to imagine what it might look like with McKinnon at the helm.

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