Eric Weddle

[JohnTurney]

has there been anyone to not play in regular season
but play so much and well in playoffs?

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

Different sides of the ball but Timmy Smith touched the ball very little in 87 and had a great playoffs -- especially Super Bowl.

[Brian wolf]

Different times but Max McGee coming off the bench and having a great SB I after hardly playing during the year showed what a professional he was ... and did it with a hangover from the night before !

Looking at his career, very much a HOVG deserving player ...

[JWL]

has there been anyone to not play in regular season
but play so much and well in playoffs?

No.

[JuggernautJ]

has there been anyone to not play in regular season
but play so much and well in playoffs?

No.

I was surprised, and not pleasantly so, that he was allowed to participate in the playoffs.
I thought there was some requirement that one has to actually be on the roster of a team that made the playoffs to participate. Silly me.

It's not like I am an unabashed 49ers fan or anything... or that his play didn't keep "us" out of the Super Bowl...

[Gary Najman]

I believe that also happened to Eagles TE Jeff Thomason in the Super Bowl after the 2004 season against the Patriots. Thomason didn't play in 2003 or 2004, but he came out of retirement and was active in the Super Bowl for the Eagles, as Chad Lewis got injured in the NFC Championshiop Game.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs04/new ... id=1977753

[Brian wolf]

Weddle was game and now a Champion. A great story for 2022, coming off the basketball courts.

[JohnTurney]

I believe that also happened to Eagles TE Jeff Thomason in the Super Bowl after the 2004 season against the Patriots. Thomason didn't play in 2003 or 2004, but he came out of retirement and was active in the Super Bowl for the Eagles, as Chad Lewis got injured in the NFC Championshiop Game.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/playoffs04/new ... id=1977753

that did not play a game in regular season but played in the playoffs. Weddle is only starter

[Jay Z]

There are at least 68 instances of a player not playing in the regular season for a team, but playing in the playoffs.

At one time there was a restriction against adding a player to the team too late for the playoffs. This is why Ed Brown was not able to play for the Colts in the 1965 playoff against the Packers, the somewhat dubious contrivance of his acquisition notwithstanding. These transactions go all the way back to 1946 at least, but others activated already were part of the organizations in question. By 1983, that no longer seemed to be an issue, since the Rams signed Mike McDonald as a long snapper off the street.

I was wondering if the retired list still exists and Weddle was on it for the Rams since he retired from them. It doesn't seem as if it mattered for McDonald, so I'm not sure it would have mattered for Weddle, though if Weddle was still getting comped by some other organization it may have been more difficult. McDonald had no prior ties to anyone.

[rhickok1109]

Different times but Max McGee coming off the bench and having a great SB I after hardly playing during the year showed what a professional he was ... and did it with a hangover from the night before !

Looking at his career, very much a HOVG deserving player ...

Cliff Christl casts a lot of doubt on the McGee hangover story in his new 4-volume history of the Packers.