After weeks of the NFL’s concussion protocol that knocked Miami Dolphins out of games, limiting what they could do in practice and even making reviews for two headshots of Tua Tagovailoa in five days, it’s a fair question to ask.
Why did Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett, before Sunday night’s game in Miami, rush through concussion protocol so much more quickly than Dolphins’ reserve Teddy Bridgewater did?
Tagovailoa’s journey through the protocol was obviously a lot different, so it wouldn’t be a comparison. He suffered a serious concussion on September 29 against the Bengals in Cincinnati. He left him unconscious, he recalls, and carried him away on a stretcher, strapped to a backboard.
But Bridgewater entered protocol on October 9 at the New York Jets only because a spotter at MetLife Stadium deemed him to have tripped, a sign of reeling, after taking a hit from New York’s Seuss Gardner in the offensive opener, although a video has not been confirmed. bog down. After that match, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Bridgewater did not show any symptoms of concussion. Due to the League and Players Association’s update of the concussion protocol the day before, Bridgewater had to be taken out of the game and treated in the protocol the following week as if he had a concussion.
That process saw Bridgewater limited to work conditioning by practice the following Wednesday, which was officially listed as a non-participant in the injury report. He then did exercises on a limited basis on Thursday before increasing his workload to full participation on Friday.
Beckett take a hit Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Devin White on Sunday who hit his head from an injury in the third quarter of the Steelers’ win. By Wednesday, the first of the week, he was already allowed to participate fully. That was to be expected after Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that would be the case, and Beckett trained again in full on Thursday.
Why this discrepancy?
“Every player and every concussion is unique, and there is no set time frame for returning to participation,” a league spokesperson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an email. “The team’s medical staff takes into account the player’s current concussion, as well as past exposures, medical history, family history and future risks in managing the player’s care.”
Given the factors the league considers, one can guess that Bridgewater’s concussion history played a role in its longer timeline. Bridgewater’s December 19 concussion with the Denver Broncos sidelined him for the final three games of the season. He also suffered one earlier that season, which he returned for the following week’s game. Bridgewater had another concussion in his NFL career, in 2015 with the Minnesota Vikings, and was also cleared for a comeback the following week.
The league does not comment on specific injuries to players and neither team will provide details on the quarterback’s recovery.
McDaniel noted Bridgewater’s limitations in practice early last week as the reason he did not start with third-series quarterback Skylar Thompson in last Sunday’s loss to the Vikings. Bridgewater, while Tagovailoa was discontinued, Thompson still relieved when the rookie left with a thumb injury.
Regardless of the influencing factors, Beckett’s rapid comeback remains worrisome. According to Dr. David Chow, via Pittsburgh sports talk radio station 93.7 The Fan, out of 39 concussions in the NFL this year, Beckett is the first player to return to full training after three days. Some speculate that the rookie quarterback didn’t actually suffer a concussion against the Pirates, but Steelers announced did on Sunday.
NFL players who outgrow the concussion protocol go through a five-step process to return to work. Permission to fully engage in practice, the fifth and final stage, is subject to the same approval by an unaffiliated physician which has been highly noted in all concussion protocol conversations in recent weeks.
“If approved, as part of a player’s progression through a five-step process, for full participation by their club physician, they must be seen by an Independent Neurological Consultant (INC), certified jointly by the NFL and NFLPA,” a league spokesperson wrote to Watchman. “If the INC confirms the club physician’s conclusion that the player’s concussion has resolved, he may return to contact practice or play in an NFL game.”
Bridgewater, last Sunday, declined to answer whether he experienced concussion symptoms on or after October 9 against the Jets, but McDaniel, who spoke at MetLife Stadium that day, said it did not. However, he went through the protocol due to the review conducted the day before the match.
The five-phase protocol proceeds as follows with gradually increasing player activity: symptom-limited activity, aerobic exercises, soccer-specific training, no-friction club training, full-football activity/clearance. Clubs generally do not detail the specific move a player takes. Supposed to be included in the injury report as a full participant in training means the player has reached stage 5, but the potential contradiction with the quarterbacks unlike the other centers is that they are not practically contacted anyway, wearing red shirts to remind his teammates not to hit them .
Bridgewater removed the protocol from its unique status on October 15, six days after its entry. Tagovailoa cleared the same day, so it took 16 days of the September 29 concussion that sent him to the hospital. Again, different players recover differently. Dolphins tight end Seitan Carter suffered a concussion in the opening match Sept. 11 following a kick-off collision. He did not return to training in any capacity for the next four weeks and, eventually, was placed in the injured reserve on October 8, putting him out of action for at least another four weeks from that point on.
Protocol was changed by the league and the union over fears of a Tagoviloa injury on September 25 against the Buffalo Bills, days before the ugly scene in Cincinnati. On Sunday, he received a similar but lighter blow to the head on the ground. Tagoviloa grabbed his helmet, flicked the cobwebs and stumbled upon getting up to take it out two minutes before the first half warning.
While he removed the first-half concussion protocol to return in the second half — and correctly, under the letter of the law, according to a players union investigation — the union’s ruling was that his statement did not match the intent of the regulations.
If a similar stumble was shown now, Tagovailoa, like Bridgewater was against the Jets, would be automatically disqualified from the game and enter the protocol. There won’t be a shift from entering protocol on Sunday to completely clearing him for Thursday night’s game — even in sprinting Beckett through protocol, which he wasn’t fully released until Friday morning.
Tomlin said he plans to play Beckett, if cleared, on Sunday against the Dolphins.
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Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin
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