There's been a lot of talk, speculation, and confusion over Pat White, Chad Henne, and how the Emergency QB Rule and how the Inactive Rules work. I thought we should review the rules, as it affects our team more than most in the NFL. To be clear, designating someone as INACTIVE is not the same as designating them as the EMERGENCY QB. They're two different things. Let's look at Chad Henne as an example. If we designate Henne as INACTIVE, that means he is not allowed to play in the game, period end of story. If, God forbid, Pennington and Pat White get hurt, he can't come into the game at all. Conversely, if we designate Henne as the EMERGENCY QB it gets more tricky. We can actually bring Henne into the game at any time. If he plays before the 4th Quarter, however, the first 2 QBs (in this case, likely Pennington and White) are then prohibited from re-entering the game, meaning that Henne must finish the game ... and if he gets hurt, we're up a creek. After the start of the 4th Quarter, however, he can play at any time and freely substitute with the other 2 QBs. In other words: That article also goes on to say that we can try to skirt the rules and list White as a WR, but that the NFL ultimately has the last say on who is and who is not considered a QB. So, to recap: INACTIVE = Cannot play on Sunday EMERGENCY QB = Can play any time in the game. If the player enters the game before the 4th quarter, the other 2 QBs may not re-enter the game. I wouldn't be shocked to see Pat White as the Emergency QB, and then see us save the WildPat for the 4th quarter. It's perfectly legal within the confines of the rules. Hopefully this clarifies everything for everyone. I suspect we'll continue to see little games like this throughout the course of the season.
Wow. GREAT POST. I think we run White as the #2 and Henne as the #3/emergency. With White as the #2 you can run the Wildcat at anytime, and if Pennington gets hurt for more than 1 series, then you bring in Henne and scrap the "Pat White" wildcat for the rest of the game. Note you can still run the "Ronnie Brown" version of it. The other way ( Henne as #2 and White #3), you can only use White in the 4th quarter, which to me sounds too limiting. The above option gives you more flexibility for the entire game. ... I guess
I'd agree with your thoughts. And I think this is why you saw White listed as the #2 instead of the #3. Because if Pennington goes down, you lose White but can run it with Ronnie, as you pointed out. It should be interesting, especially if the team gets sneaky and tries to list White as a WR (though I don't think they will, as we only have 2 other QBs on the roster).
I was pretty furious when they didn't bring in Henne for that final drive. The silver lining of being blown out is getting a chance to see him in a real game. All that talk by Sparano about getting Henne into games clearly didn't mean anything.
With as pathetic as the O-Line looked, I wasn't all that surprised. It wouldn't have done anything for his confidence to stick him back there and let him get slaughtered. Put it this way, if Pennington is scrambling around, then Henne (who typically holds the ball longer than Pennington) is probably going to be even worse off. If it was 35-0 I would agree with you. But it was 19-7.
They could easily put White as the receiver....the only thing is then someone like Hilliard or Moses will be inactive...the 3rd QB rule lets us dress 46 instaed of 45
Question. If we list Henne as the "emergency guy" than that means that that is one less person who can be active?
It's actually one less person that's inactive. We'd basically have a roster of 45, an Emergency QB, and 7 folks Inactive. Make sense?
yes, except then that makes the "8 players inactive" to the officials a rule that isn't held strictly?
That's what the first quote addresses. Henne can be listed as inactive, but designated as the emergency QB. If we designate him, we can use the Emergency QB rules. Personally I think they should scrap the whole inactive thing across the board, as well as the emergency QB rules. Seems silly to me. Why have a roster of 53 if you aren't allowed to use it all? In today's era of specialization it really hurts what teams can and can't do in terms of game plan. I mean, the NCAA carries huge rosters, something like 105, of which there's 80 or so that can be active on game day.
I'm sure if they increase the regular season to 17-18 games they will also increase the game day roster
I one million percent agree on that!! It is beyond stupid!!! I wonder who the hell could want that rule anyway? The owners? That doesn't seem sensible. They are paying these guys either way, so why would they not want everyone on the roster dressed and available on game day? The players? Heck they all want to play and having all 53 active would make more solid STs guys available for those roles and save some of the starters from having to be used as much on teams. Dressing all 53 allows teams to put a better product on the field and that should be the bottom line. I realize there will be times when a team won't have 53 healthy players and may be at a numbers disadvantage. So generally the better conditioned teams will be less likely to have fewer than 53 healthy players any given Sunday.
henne should be the emergency QB since he will only get playing time if we're slaughtering a team or if we're getting slaughtered. in other words, we would only use him in the 4th quarter anyway.
I agree mostly, but the idea is what if Pennington has a Brady moment and is lost early, then we have to bring in Henne and lose pat as a wildcat option witch doesn't mean much ronnie can run it but we also lose our back up to Henne in Pat White
like you said, ronnie can run the wild cat. And what are the chances that pennington and henne get hurt in the same game? We are just talking about 1 game anyway. i don't see the issue.
Thats why i said "I agree mostly" But one game can make or break the season! if penny went down in the 3rd qt ok run the wildcat or pat can try for 10 minutes but if he drops in the 1st we need henne with a back up.
Outstanding thread, 5 stars from me, really solid info - thank you! Now I have a question: against Atlanta we listed Pat White as the #2 QB, does anyone know if we indeed listed Henne as the "Emergency QB"? I would assume we did, but would love to know for sure. Wonder if there is any way to find out.
Not sure if we can get this info consistently such as a roster breakdown they all dont show the emrg. QB. But i saw this on : http://www.miamidolphins.com/newsite/news/fromthegame.asp?docid=44855
For the most part, if you see a QB listed among the inactives, it's pretty safe to assume they're also listed as the emergency QB. Wouldn't make a lot of sense to not use the designation and free up the extra roster spot.
