Anyone who's been following the NFL this season has probably seen the disappointment of many fans and analysts in Houston Texans QB Brock Osweiler. Coming off of his role as a backup to Peyton Manning as the Broncos marched to a Super Bowl 50 victory, Osweiler signed a now somewhat infamous four year, $72 million contract with the Texans before this season, making him one of the highest paid players in the league.
Osweiler, who only had 7 career starts before signing his contract, has certainly underperformed thus far, leading the Texans to an 8-6 record as a starter in one of the easiest divisions in the NFL. He also is near the bottom in both passing yards and passing touchdowns, rating 27th in those categories at the end of the regular season. Long story short, Osweiler wasn't getting it done, so Bill O'Brein decided to pull him in a week 15 matchup against Jacksonville, where Osweiler had 2 interceptions and didn't put up a single point against a subpar opponent in two quarters of play. So, the Texans, with strong support from the home crowd at NRG Stadium, put in backup quarterback Tom Savage, a third year player out of the University of Pittsburgh who no career starts prior to this season.
Tom Savage enjoyed some success, leading the Texans to a win both against Jacksonville when he replaced Osweiler, and then again the following week against Cincinnati. However, in week 17 facing Tennessee, Savage took a shot early in the 2nd quarter on a QB sneak, as was removed from the game by officials to be evaluated for a concussion. However, Savage cleared the concussion examinations, and briefly returned to action later in the second quarter. However, he apparently experienced concussion symptoms when returning to the field, and at halftime was ruled out for the remainder of the game. Today, four days later, he remains in the NFL's concussion protocol, and is unlikely to start in this week's AFC wild card matchup against Oakland.
Initially, I was disappointed that Savage returned to the game at all, but after thinking about it, I realized that the league really did do everything it needed to; Savage was watched by one of the league's concussion spotters up in the press box, and the spotter contacted an official down on the field who removed Savage from the game. We no reason not to believe that he was evaluated thoroughly by team doctors, and was probably symptom free when he returned to the game.
The real lesson here, though, is that even if a player returns to the field after passing concussion protocol, officials and team staff should keep a special eye on the player for the remainder of the game, because concussion symptoms can often take time to develop. Especially, under the adrenaline-fueled atmosphere of a game, a player might not experience symptoms for minutes, hours, or even days after the initial hit. We've seen this situation before this season; back in November, Colts QB Andrew Luck completed the matchup against the Titans, but reported concussion symptoms well after the game, and missed his team's Thanksgiving day game against Pittsburgh.
Understanding that symptoms do not always develop immediately after a concussive hit is a next level that the NFL's concussion protocol can incorporate in order to properly protect players. Overall, concussions are difficult to diagnose, because they're an invisible injury barring loss of consciousness, balance problems, or a few other symptoms, so responsibility falls on players as well to report symptoms that develop late. But it's a two way street, and the concussion protocol could possibly include checkups at the end of each quarter and at the end of the game if a player is evaluated but then returns to play.
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