By the start of Sunday’s NFC Championship game, the 49ers were already down to their third-string quarterback (Brock Purdy), but an injury to the rookie left San Francisco one big hit away from having to play against a quarterback who could actually never played quarterback.
With Purdy on the touchline from an elbow injury sustained in the game’s first possession, San Francisco turned to fourth-stringer Josh Johnson, but then injured himself in the third quarter (concussion), keeping the 49ers grounded in their emergency quarterback.
So who is the contingency QB? That would be either Kyle Juszczyk or Christian McCaffrey, according to the Fox show. It was looking more and more likely that one of these two guys might end up snapping some snaps below the middle. After Johnson was out, the 49ers reinserted Purdy, though he could barely throw due to his injured elbow. The Eagles won the game 31-7 and advanced to Super Bowl LVII. McCaffrey threw a pass as the exhausted 49ers stayed late in the game with mostly run plays.
On McCaffrey’s side, he had thrown four career passes, walking 2 for 4 for 84 yards and a touchdown. He went 0 for 1 on Sunday. Juszczyk has been in the NFL for 10 seasons and has never thrown a pass, meaning the 49ers would almost certainly have to run some sort of wildcat offense if either Juszczyk or McCaffrey entered the game in QB.
The crazy thing about Juszczyk is that the NFC Championship isn’t even the first game this season where he’s just one injury away from getting into the game. In Week 2, the 49ers only had two active quarterbacks against the Seahawks. That was the game the 49ers had to turn to Jimmy Garoppolo after Trey Lance suffered a fractured ankle.
If Garoppolo had been injured in that 27-7 win, the 49ers should have turned to Juszczyk. At that time, Juszczyk made it clear that he did not want to take part in the QB.
“I told Jimmy in the locker room, I said, ‘Hey man, don’t let me play quarterback today,'” Juszczyk said after the Week 2 win. “And he promised that he’s going to do everything he can to not let that happen .”