After the Panthers made Cam Newton the first overall pick in the 2011 draft, incumbent starter Jimmy Clausen vowed to give Newton all the competition he could handle.
In the end, Newton won.
And Clausen’s loss was more dramatic than expected. As Steve Reed of CarolinaGrowl.com reports, Clausen could be inactive on Sunday against the Cardinals, behind Newton and Derek Anderson.
It would be an obvious consequence of the new 46-man roster rule. By ditching the prior procedure that allowed 45 players and an emergency third quarterback to dress and permitting teams to use 46 players regardless of position, the league has given teams with three quarterbacks an alternative to actually having all three put on a uniform for a given game.
And so, with 13 teams currently opting to have only two quarterbacks on the roster, some of the other 19 teams who have decided to keep a trio of signal-callers may only trot out two of them when it’s time to play.