JACKSONVILLE — Miami Dolphins rookie wide receiver Daewood Davis was taken to Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville on Saturday and spent the night there after taking a hit to the head with 8:32 remaining in the preseason finale against the Jaguars at EverBank Stadium.
He was released from the hospital Sunday morning and will travel home to Miami with team personnel.
Saturday night the Dolphins said Davis, who attended Deerfield Beach High and Western Kentucky University, was conscious and had movement in all of his extremities when he was carted off the field with the Jaguars leading, 31-18. The game was suspended.
“Obviously this is a weird situation for the whole team,” wide receiver Tyreek Hill said. “It’s very unfortunate. Nobody ever wants to feel the way that we feel.”
Davis appeared to take a hit to the side of his head by linebacker Dequan Johnson as he was being tackled by cornerback Kaleb Hayes. Davis laid face down on the field as trainers ran out to his assistance.
After a while, the medical cart was brought onto the field, Davis was carefully placed on an immobilizing board, put on the cart and taken away. In the meantime, coaches and players from both teams gathered around him on the field.
After Davis was taken away Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and Jaguars coach Doug Pederson met with referees, and the union representatives from each team, Dolphins defensive lineman Christian Wilkins and Jaguars kicker Brandon McManus, also met with the coaches and referees.
McDaniel said the league was consulted.
“Both teams mutually agreed to end the game at that point, which we made the league aware of,” McDaniel said.
When discussing Davis, McDaniel got emotional.
“He’s a …” McDaniel said, pausing as he got choked up. “He’s a great spirit, first and foremost.”
McDaniel said Davis sang a song and told a story at the team’s rookie event.
“He’s magnetic,” McDaniel said. “He’s got a cool personality to him and guys really saw that from then on.”
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who was carted off the field and hospitalized at Cincinnati last year due to a concussion, said it’s tough to prepare for things such as a player being carted off the field.
“I think there are a lot of things that happened out there on the field tonight that weren’t expected,” he said. “For Daewood, I don’t think he woke up this morning understanding that there are repercussions playing this sport, that this was going to happen. I don’t think anyone wakes up thinking things like that are going to happen.”
McDaniel said he told the team there’s no normal way to feel after such an event.
“I just wanted to make sure guys knew that there’s no right way to feel,” he said. “We all sign up for the sport, love the sport, and it’s conflicting when you see one of your brothers go down in that fashion, and I just wanted to make sure they knew that there is no way to feel, but to make sure to tell your loved ones you love them and not take your teammates and your relationships with them for granted at all because that’s what you lean on.”
Most starters play in finale
Tagovailoa, Hill and a host of other starters saw action in the team’s preseason finale.
McDaniel said this past week he expected starters to play “more than a series, less than a half” in Saturday’s exhibition.
The Dolphins’ list of players “not expected to play,” released more than an hour before kickoff at TIAA Bank Field: Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, quarterback Mike White, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, cornerback Justin Bethel, running backs Jeff Wilson Jr. and De’Von Achane, safety Brandon Jones, offensive linemen Robert Jones and Terron Armstead, wide receiver Braylon Sanders and defensive tackles Zach Sieler, Da’Shawn Hand and Wilkins.
White was in the latter stages of concussion protocol at the Dolphins’ final training camp practice Thursday, but McDaniel said he wouldn’t play regardless, meaning Skylar Thompson and undrafted rookie James Blackman received snaps behind Tagovailoa.
Armstead continues to nurse a lower right leg injury with his target of a return for the Sept. 10 regular-season opener at the Los Angeles Chargers rapidly approaching. After initially suffering the injury Aug. 17 in a joint practice with the Texans in Houston, he was seen out of his walking boot late in the past week watching practice.
Waddle has not returned to practice participation since leaving an Aug. 9 joint practice with the Atlanta Falcons due to a midsection ailment.
Wilkins has been sitting out team portions of practice amid a yet-to-be-resolved contract dispute in which he’s looking to secure a long-term extension. Sieler appeared to injure his left leg during the past week of practice, but the team is taking precautions after he returned to team drills the same day he suffered the injury.
Ramsey is expected to be held out deep into the regular season after he had surgery on the meniscus in his left knee in late July.
Brandon Jones missed his third preseason game as he has slowly been worked back in camp from last season’s torn ACL. Robert Jones and Saubert were injured in last week’s exhibition at the Texans.
Spots up for grabs
As is always the case with a preseason finale, Saturday night’s exhibition in Jacksonville will be instrumental for the final few players earning an active-roster spot or leaving a lasting impression, whether that’s to land on Miami’s practice squad or for another team to pick them up.
Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has his experience making those decisions as a head coach and spoke earlier in the week on the tight battles for those spots.
“This last week is going to be very important for a lot of people,” Fangio said. “It’s easy to pick a team 1 through 40 or 45. It’s those 8 to 13 that are hard. This week is going to be very telling for some of the guys.”
McDaniel sees it as a good problem to have.
“The better your competition and (the better) your roster depth is,” he said, “we don’t take it lightly and the competition is real. So you have to factor in a ton of things that really get challenging. From my experience, just in the NFL, this is one of the most high-intense, competitive across the board situations that I can remember. So, in times like that, when there is a plethora of talent and you have minimal distinction between certain guys, like what Vic’s alluding to you, you really have to let the whole process play out.”
Adding to the challenge, the Dolphins must assure they have ample depth across various positions, some where they would like to keep more than they can on the 53-man roster.
“A position’s gain is another position’s loss,” McDaniel said. “And that balancing act makes it incredibly difficult. We have multiple position groups where you could go heavy on this team. So what position groups are those? Which individuals are those? The only thing you can do is allow everyone to get their full opportunity.”
Defense gets final tune-up
Dolphins linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel said this past week the preseason finale would allow the Dolphins to iron things out defensively ahead of the start of the regular season.
“It’s been (a) learning curve, obviously, learning a new defense with Fangio coming in and implementing his style of play,” Van Ginkel said. “We got one more game and hopefully we can figure out our identity and roll after that.”
The fifth-year player with Miami said the defense has improved on communication throughout camp.
An outside linebacker through his first four professional seasons, Van Ginkel has added positional versatility this offseason, also working at inside linebacker off the ball.
“The more you can do, you get a bigger picture of everything,” he said. “Being on the edge, I know how the defensive end is going to fit or how the outside linebacker is. Just being able to play off that, it just gives you a better anticipation for the game. It allows you to play faster.”
Said cornerback Kader Kohuo of the defense: “I feel like we do a lot of good things, but we still have a lot to work on. So we’re still just working.”
