A Brief Refresher On The Emergency Quarterback Rules

When Kyler Murray went back to the locker room yesterday during the Minnesota Vikings’ victory over the Green Bay Packers, there was a bit of confusion on social media. . .at least from what I saw. . .about what the Minnesota Vikings could do at quarterback. Yes, Carson Wentz was the backup and J.J. McCarthy was the emergency quarterback, but what do those things mean?

Well, I wanted to use this space to take a minute to clarify a few things about the emergency quarterback rule and how it works. Hopefully this will alleviate some confusion going forward.

First of all, the emergency quarterback is technically inactive on game day. That’s why their name comes out as part of the inactive list ninety minutes before game time. He must be designated as the emergency quarterback as part of that list.

The emergency quarterback can only enter the game in the event that the #1 and #2 quarterback are deemed unavailable for play, whether due to injury or disqualification. A team can’t put their emergency quarterback into the game for performance-based reasons. If Carson Wentz had gone out there yesterday and thrown six interceptions, the Vikings would have had to keep running him out there as long as he was still medically cleared to play (or didn’t get himself ejected for. . .I don’t know, something).

Conversely, if a team does put their emergency quarterback into the game after their first two quarterbacks get injured and one of their top two quarterbacks then gets cleared to return, the emergency quarterback must immediately come out of the game in favor of the active quarterback. If the active quarterback is re-injured, the emergency quarterback can come back into the game.

In addition, a team’s emergency quarterback must be on the 53-man roster, per the NFL rulebook.

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.

That means a team can’t elevate a player from the practice squad and make them the emergency quarterback. This is where things might get a little tricky for the Vikings if Kyler Murray isn’t able to go against Chicago.

If Murray isn’t able to go this coming Sunday and the Vikings want to have three quarterbacks on the roster when they face the Bears, they will have to release or waive a player from the main roster so they can sign Max Brosmer from the practice squad. That would, at least until Murray is healthy enough to play again, give them four quarterbacks on the main roster and leave them short somewhere else.

If you want the actual, “letter of the law” verbiage behind the third quarterback rule, it’s all at the link a little further up there. But that should pretty well summarize everything so that everyone knows how the rule works going forward. At this point, it seems more likely than not that we’re going to have to reference it again at some point this season.