49ers’ emergency quarterback, who’s not a QB, could have been forced to play in NFC Championship vs. Eagles

Going into Sunday’s NFC Championship game, the 49ers were already down to their third-string quarterback (Brock Purdy), but after an injury to the rookie, San Francisco was just one big hit away from being forced to play a quarterback who has never actually played quarterback. 

With Purdy on the sideline due to an elbow injury that he suffered on the first possession of the game, San Francisco turned to fourth-stringer Josh Johnson, but then he got injured in the third quarter (concussion), which left the 49ers down to their emergency quarterback.

So who is the emergency QB? That would be either Kyle Juszczyk or Christian McCaffrey, according to the Fox broadcast. It started to look more and more possible that one of those two guys could end up taking taking a few snaps under center. With Johnson out, the 49ers put Purdy back in, though he could barely throw due to his injured elbow. The Eagles won the game, 31-7, to reach Super Bowl LVII. McCaffrey threw one pass, as the depleted 49ers mostly stuck with running plays late in the game.

On McCaffrey’s end, he had thrown four career passes going in, going 2 for 4 for 84 yards and a touchdown. He went 0 for 1 on Sunday. As for Juszczyk, he’s been in the NFL for 10 seasons and he’s never thrown a pass, which means the 49ers would have almost certainly have to run some sort of Wildcat offense if either Juszczyk or McCaffrey entered the game at QB. 

The crazy part about Juszczyk is that the NFC Championship isn’t even the first game this season where he’s been one injury away from entering the game. Back in Week 2, the 49ers only had two active quarterbacks against the Seahawks. That was the game where the 49ers had to turn to Jimmy Garoppolo after Trey Lance suffered a broken ankle. 

If Garoppolo had gotten injured in that 27-7 win, then the 49ers would have had to turn to Juszczyk. At the time, Juszczyk made it clear that he wanted no part of playing QB. 

“I told Jimmy in the locker room, I said ‘Hey man, don’t make me play quarterback today,'” Juszczyk said following the Week 2 win. “And he promised he was going to do everything he could to not let that happen.”