After suffering a head injury early on Sunday, Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is moving the right direction to play in Week 8.
It looked fairly innocuous, until he got up looking unstable after his first catch after taking a blow to his head. Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown was quickly removed from Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys by an official, and he was ruled out quickly as he entered the NFL’s heightened concussion protocols.
Given the new protocols, the idea St. Brown could miss Week 8 against the Miami Dolphins is not far-fetched. But on Monday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell offered some clarity on the situation with a healthy dose of good news.
It was determined Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, who was pulled from yesterday's game early by officials, did not suffer a concussion. He remains in concussion protocol. He passed concussion tests on the field, but could not return because of the instability he showed on the field
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) October 24, 2022
Via Ben Raven of MLive:
"He’s in the protocol. But he’s certainly trending the right way,” Campbell said. “No, he cleared. He cleared. But it’s, he’s in the protocol just to go through the process of it. But I would anticipate us having him this weekend."
Amon-Ra St. Brown did not suffer a concussion, in line to play Week 8
The new NFL baseline of displaying “gross motor instability”, in the wake of the situation with Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa a few weeks ago, certainly applied to St. Brown. But he was apparently never actually deemed to have suffered a concussion, or he at least passed concussion tests. But the league’s independent evaluator ruled him out after watching the video of the play.
St. Brown will have to progress through the protocol, and have no setbacks practically as if he had suffered a concussion, in order to be cleared to play Sunday against the Dolphins. The early news is good though. It seems the new rules and the resulting extra caution were primarily what kept him out after playing 10 snaps against Dallas, not a severe brain injury.
Beyond any relatively trivial concern over his playing status, that’s the best news for St. Brown in the wake of Sunday’s situation.