NFLPA complicates Colts' Sam Ehlinger decision by vetoing emergency QB rule changes

INDIANAPOLIS — The rules of the NFL’s toughest weekend have reportedly changed on the fly.

The NFL Player’s Association has vetoed an offseason rule change, according to the NFL Network, that would have allowed teams to keep their emergency quarterback — typically the team’s No. 3 quarterback — on the practice squad indefinitely, elevating them to the active roster each week for emergency purposes.

The NFL competition committee and the owners had approved the rule change.

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But the NFLPA’s veto reverts the rule back to its 2023 version, which allowed teams to designate one inactive quarterback on game day as the emergency quarterback, allowing teams to have a third quarterback available on the bench who would be capable of playing if both the starter and immediate backup were injured.

The team’s No. 3 quarterback must be on the team’s 53-man roster.

A rule that significantly alters the decision-making process for teams as they whittle their rosters down to 53 players by 4 p.m. Tuesday.

For example, the Colts kept Sam Ehlinger on the roster throughout the season last year as a third quarterback, placing Ehlinger on the inactive list for most weeks.

Ehlinger has spent most of the preseason trying to convince Indianapolis to keep him on the roster even though the Colts already have Anthony Richardson entrenched as a starter and veteran Joe Flacco in the fold as the team’s primary backup. If the rule change had stayed in place, Indianapolis could have tried to sneak Ehlinger through to the practice squad and elevated him to the 53-man roster every week, all while giving the team the flexibility of an extra spot on the 53-man roster.

The NFLPA’s veto took that option away, and now a team like the Colts has to weigh an extra position player on the roster versus the possibility of a doomsday scenario where both quarterbacks get hurt and there is no one left to play the position.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NFLPA complicates Colts' Sam Ehlinger decision by vetoing emergency QB rule changes