As far as the different positions go, offensive tackles certainly don't have the same star power as do positions like quarterback, running back, or middle linebacker. Many committed fans probably couldn't even identify which position on the offensive line that tackles play, let alone name who their favorite teams' starting tackles are. But Michael Oher, left tackle for the Carolina Panthers, is probably one of the most famous offensive linemen in the league, not just for his 8 year NFL career or for his role on the 2013 Baltimore Ravens team that won the Super Bowl, but for the movie The Blind Side, which was a semi-autobiographical account of Oher's experiences growing up in foster care and with periods of homelessness, his eventual adoption by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, and his academic and athletic achievements that enabled him to receive an athletic scholarship to the University of Mississippi.
Even putting all concerns about long-term health aside, I can't imagine why any coach or front office person would keep a player on their roster that has been in concussion protocol for six months. Obviously every brain injury is unique and it's impossible to predict someone's path of recovery or long-term prognosis, but if a player has been unable to pass concussion protocol (which consists of neuropsychological evaluation which tests cognitive and balance functions, and then moves to a graduated increase of physical activity from light aerobic activities, to football-specific workouts, to non-contact drills, to full-contact practice) for six months, the chances that he's all-of-a-sudden going to get healthy in time for next season, and, more importantly, that he'll stay healthy throughout the following year, is extremely unlikely. And what baffles me the most is that this situation happens way more often than it should, where a good player enters concussion protocol for a prolonged period time (like months), but then returns the following year only to eventually re-enter the concussion protocol once again. This exact situation happened with Steelers tight end Ladarius Green, who I wrote an article about in December. You'd think that NFL teams would stop taking chances on these guys given the risks involved. And again, here I'm only talking about the financial and logistical risks of signing a player who might not be able to play in every game, not the larger question of whether a player with a history of concussions should at some point be blacklisted (either formally or informally) from being signed by teams in the future.
Answering that bigger question is a bit tougher, and it depends on a lot of different variables at play. In the case of Oher, I don't think it could be more obvious that he should hang up the cleats. I mean, the guy is 30 years old, he's been in the NFL for eight years, he's a multimillionaire, he's a Super Bowl champion, he had a movie made about his life that was nominated for an Academy Award. What else does he need to prove? A player who is 23, has only been in the NFL for one year and is still trying to make a name for himself and make enough money where the past 8+ years he's invested in football might seem financially worthwhile, maybe I could see his reasoning for wanting to keep trying to get healthy and play another year (of course, I certainly would certainly advise him against it, but I'm just saying I understand his argument). But it makes no sense for Oher to stick around or for the Panthers to take a chance on him by keeping him for the 2017 season, because he's already had a long career, and he's at the age where he's deteriorating as a player anyway, concussion issues or not.
Now, I don't think it would be right for the NFL to ever literally force a player to retire over concussion issues, for a few reasons. One, there's a 100% injury rate in the game of football. It's unfortunate, but it's a reality that players obviously understand and experience every year. And more recently, I think an increasing amount of players also understand the symptoms of concussions and the risks of concussions on long-term health. But another important thing to consider is that if the NFL were to ever force players to retire due to concussions, it would strongly discourage players from reporting concussions to medical staff and/or teams from reporting concussions to the media out of fear of a player's career being cut short (the irony here should be pretty obvious).
I think a good solution might be a shift in the perception of signing or resigning players with a known history of prolonged concussion symptoms. To discuss Ladarius Green again, I guarantee the Steelers organization knew about the concussion history he had with the Chargers when they decided to sign him as a free agent. In fact, they probably discussed it at length before making a decision on his contract. But they decided that it wasn't significant enough to avoid signing him, even though he was healthy for only six games in the 2016 season. A big shift should come from the media as well. I mean, there's many different non-directly-football-related reasons that teams choose not to sign players, and much of this reasoning comes due to perceived media reaction. For example, most teams avoid signing players with histories of off-the-field incidents such as DUIs, assault charges, domestic violence, among other things. While I'd like to think that the decision to not sign these players is because NFL teams care about having players with high standards of conduct, a large incentive for these decisions more likely comes from the perceived impact it will have on a team's PR. You would think that if the media viewed signing a player with a history of concussions as a negative action by NFL teams, and if situations like what happened with Green or what is currently happening with Oher received more media scrutiny, they'd be less likely to do it.
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