The San Francisco 49ers have their insurance policy at quarterback, having agreed a one-year deal with Sam Darnold.
San Francisco last season saw their Super Bowl hopes derailed by injuries at the game's most important position, literally running out of healthy players at quarterback in their NFC Championship Game defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles.
That game saw Brock Purdy suffer a torn elbow ligament on the first offensive series for the 49ers. Josh Johnson was then concussed in the second half.
Purdy, the final pick in last year's draft, had previously improbably led the 49ers to the Conference Championship.
He won all five of his starts in the regular season after taking over from an injured Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 13 to lift them to a 13-4 record and the second seed in the NFC, and he then helped San Francisco to playoff victories over the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys.
Purdy last week had surgery to repair his torn ligament, giving 2021 third overall pick Trey Lance, whose season-ending ankle injury suffered in Week 2 forced the Niners to turn to Garoppolo, a chance to stake his claim for the starting job during the offseason programme.
Yet with Garoppolo departing in free agency for the Las Vegas Raiders, the 49ers needed an experienced third-stringer, and they have turned to 2018 third overall pick Darnold.
Darnold has failed to live up to his draft slot in spells with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers, though he did go 4-2 as a starter for the latter in 2022.
That relative success came with Steve Wilks serving as interim head coach. Wilks has since replaced new Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans as San Francisco's defensive coordinator.
In 2022, Darnold delivered an accurate, well-thrown ball on 83.2 per cent of his pass attempts, 13th among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts, according to Stats Perform data.
Those are encouraging numbers, but the 49ers will hope Purdy and Lance can display the durability to ensure Darnold is not asked to replicate that level of accuracy in 2023.
Cowboys quarterback Prescott reportedly expected to miss multiple weeks with hamstring injury
The path to the play-offs is now even tougher for the Dallas Cowboys.
Quarterback Dak Prescott will reportedly miss several weeks with a hamstring injury sustained in Sunday's 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The severity of the injury was determined following an MRI, and reported Monday from multiple media outlets.
Prescott is planning to get a second opinion, and the Cowboys have not decided if they will place him on injured reserve, which would keep him on the sideline a minimum of four games.
Prescott, who signed a record-breaking, $240million contract hours before this season's opener, suffered the injury late in the third quarter.
He was replaced by Cooper Rush, and the seven-year backup will get the start this Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Rush completed 13-of-25 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown against the Falcons, but couldn't rally Dallas all the way back.
The Cowboys ended up losing their third straight game to drop to 3-5, which matches the total number of losses the team had each of the last three seasons.
They now sit in third place in the NFC East, 3 1/2 games behind the division-leading Washington Commanders.
Rush has found some success as a fill-in starter for the Cowboys, though, the 30-year-old hasn't been forced into the starting role since 2022.
In six career starts for Dallas, he's gone 5-1 with 1,281 passing yards with seven touchdowns, four interceptions and an 83.6 rating.
There is some good news for the Cowboys, though, as star defensive end Micah Parsons is likely to return this Sunday after missing the last four games with a high-ankle sprain.
Cowboys quarterback Prescott expected to miss multiple weeks with hamstring injury
The path to the play-offs is now even tougher for the Dallas Cowboys.
Quarterback Dak Prescott will reportedly miss several weeks with a hamstring injury sustained in Sunday's 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The severity of the injury was determined Monday following an MRI.
Prescott is planning to get a second opinion, and the Cowboys have not decided if they will place him on injured reserve, which would keep him on the sideline a minimum of four games.
Prescott, who signed a record-breaking, $240million contract hours before this season's opener, suffered the injury late in the third quarter.
He was replaced by Cooper Rush, and the seven-year backup will get the start this Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Rush completed 13-of-25 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown against the Falcons, but couldn't rally Dallas all the way back.
The Cowboys ended up losing their third straight game to drop to 3-5, which matches the total number of losses the team had each of the last three seasons.
They now sit in third place in the NFC East, 3 1/2 games behind the division-leading Washington Commanders.
Rush has found some success as a fill-in starter for the Cowboys, though, the 30-year-old hasn't been forced into the starting role since 2022.
In six career starts for Dallas, he's gone 5-1 with 1,281 passing yards with seven touchdowns, four interceptions and an 83.6 rating.
There is some good news for the Cowboys, though, as star defensive end Micah Parsons is likely to return this Sunday after missing the last four games with a high-ankle sprain.
Stumbling Saints fire head coach Allen
The New Orleans Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen on Monday, one day after the team’s losing streak reached seven games with a 23-22 defeat to the lowly Carolina Panthers.
New Orleans got off to an unexpected strong start to the 2024 season by outscoring its first two opponents 91-29 in a pair of victories.
The Saints lost their next two games by just a combined five points, but then it really started to unravel for the team.
New Orleans’ next four defeats all came by 13 points or more, and on Sunday, the Panthers pulled out a 23-22 win over the Saints after Carolina entered the meeting with a 1-7 record.
Allen was promoted from New Orleans' defensive coordinator to head coach after the 2021 season, and the Saints posted an 18-25 record under him with no play-off appearances.
The Saints (2-7) are expected to name special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi as interim head coach ahead of their Week 10 visit from the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons (6-3).
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