What would a 'bullpen game' look like in the NFL?

The World Series is set to start on Friday between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Pitching will be the key to winning the Commissioner's Trophy, just as quarterbacking is key to lifting the Lombardi Trophy.

But what would it look like if NFL coaches handled quarterbacks like MLB managers did their pitching staffs? The Football Guys' Jeff Bell broached the scenario on X and we decided to dive a little deeper.

The obvious distinction between the two sports is there are multiple pitchers on a staff compared to just two or three quarterbacks on an NFL roster. So, firstly a rule change would need to be implemented.

Currently, NFL teams are only allowed two active passers while the third "emergency" quarterback is required to be listed as inactive until injury necessitates. For example, Jameis Winston was the inactive third passer for Cleveland on Sunday until starter Deshaun Watson tore his Achilles and then backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson left with his own injury.

The league would have to adjust roster caps to allow for a greater number of passers, say five at a time, to accommodate this scenario.

For the sake of discussion, let's pick five quarterbacks for a fictional team. Joe Flacco, Jameis Winston, Gardner Minshew, Andy Dalton and Joshua Dobbs.

The team would select one as the "starter" but he'd be on a short leash. Once his game starts to show cracks, the coach would pull him and put another fresh passer in to continue.

However, in baseball, once a manager pulls a starter and goes to his bullpen, that starter cannot return but in the NFL there are unlimited substitutions. So, in this scenario let's adhere to the MLB rule.

If Flacco gets the start but only lasts 20 minutes of game time, he cannot return once pulled. That would make having multiple playable quarterbacks more of a strategic decision for the coach to make.

Now, the results of such a strategy are unpredictable but it would certainly make defending that much harder. It would be very interesting to see it employed in a real game one day.