NFL adding new rule to prevent repeat of Broncos’ QB crisis

The Denver Broncos fell victim to an unusual situation regarding their quarterbacks last month due to COVID-19 protocols. As it turns out, they’ll be the only team put in that situation.

The NFL on Saturday announced a rule change, effective immediately, that would allow players who are already in the league’s testing protocols to join new teams immediately. That means that a team could sign a quarterback off another team’s practice squad in an emergency without having to go through the testing process with them.

Call this one The Kendall Hinton Rule: If another team loses all its QBs late in the week of a game because of COVID protocols, it now could sign a QB off another team’s practice squad and start him on Sunday. The change is effective immediately. https://t.co/LrP9JWUePl

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) December 19, 2020

This obviously doesn’t do a lot of good for the Broncos now, who had their entire QB room isolating and scrambling to figure out what to do just before a game last month. If that happened now, the Broncos could sign someone off a practice squad and rush them in to start.

It’s a justified rule change. Still, it would’ve deprived us of a pretty cool story in retrospect.