Well, well, well. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
According to Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team, the NFL Competition Committee is expected to have discussions about the third quarterback rule, which would allow teams to have an emergency quarterback in uniform on game days in the event of a worst-case scenario.
That way, if you are in the NFC Championship game and your third-string quarterback goes down with a UCL injury and your fourth-string quarterback suffers a concussion, you won’t have to result to a Wildcat formation.
While this proposal feels reactionary, it’s also necessary. This is something that should have been in place, especially with the concussion protocol.
How this potential rule change would affect the rosters is a different question, as the old rule of having a third active quarterback didn’t count against the active game day roster.
Debates are saying that game day rosters were smaller when the third quarterback rule was around, and teams are simply electing not to have a third quarterback active, but it goes back to the original point. This would be in case of an emergency.
What are the downsides to this? Do we even need inactive lists to begin with?