The 49ers Are Right about the QB Idea
The San Francisco 49ers had zero healthy quarterbacks in the middle of the 2022 NFC Championship. Trey Lance fractured his ankle a few months ago, Jimmy Garoppolo broke his foot in December, Brock Purdy reportedly tore his UCL against the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship, and veteran journeyman Josh Johnson was concussed about an hour later.
It was a Wes Craven-caliber horror film for the 49ers.
The 49ers Are Right about the QB Idea
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So, they want to fix it. Of course, they’ll spend the next seven months determining how to be healthier at quarterback, but San Fransisco’s brass has another contingency plan — allow for an emergency QB on gameday rosters.
The 49ers probably wouldn’t have won the NFC Championship in Philadelphia, but they assuredly would’ve had a puncher’s chance if some human begin could throw the football. Down the stretch of the NFC title game, Purdy was in the lineup solely to hand the football to others. That’s all he could muster. Soon after, Purdy was diagnosed with a UCL injury, which is about as rotten as it gets for a thrower of any ball.
Therefore, 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan publicly endorsed the emergency quarterback idea. Shanahan told the media Wednesday about an extra QB at all times, “Definitely would be in favor of it. We were scared to death when that rule ended, whatever many years ago that was.”
“You kind of forget about it since you don’t see anyone have to go through it, but then you get reminded of how quickly a football game is over once that happens. So, I think that would be a very smart thing to have,” Shanahan added.
Lynch, unsurprisingly, agreed, “I think it would be good for football. You’re always trying to develop these guys, but you’re always weighing that, carrying three as opposed to their roster value of being able to host a full complement of position players at different positions. I think if the league just kind of gave you an out there, everybody would be forced to do it, you’d have more people in camps improving, I think it’d be good for football.”
Adding a spot on active gameday rosters for the just-in-case quarterback is a win-win. There is nothing to lose. The existence of the hypothetical man hurts nothing or nobody. That QB3 or QB4 will likely never see the field — and get pretty bored — but who cares? It would be a fail-safe for what happened to San Francisco on the second grandest stage of them all.
From a Vikings perspective, this would be akin to designating Josh Rosen in 2022 or Nate Stanley in 2021 as the emergency quarterback, available if something happened to Kirk Cousins and Nick Mullens — or Cousins, Sean Mannion, and Kellen Mond last year.
There is no downside. The NFL should allow teams to designate the player before every game and carve out a roster space accordingly.
The Vikings host the 49ers next season at U.S. Bank Stadium.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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