Reporter defends Tua Tagovailoa's decision not to wear Guardian Cap

It was reported in early October that numerous NFL players were wearing Guardian Caps during the early stages of the regular season, but there were many detractors as well.

An anonymous player poll by The Athletic showed that many athletes chose not to sport the attire due to a host of reasons, including weight, function and even how the padding looked. This, despite NFL officials saying that the Guardian Caps had helped reduce concussions during preseason practices by almost 50%.

Though Tagovailoa has returned to practice, he's not a lock to play in Miami's Week 8 contest against the Arizona Cardinals.

Per Louis-Jacques, the lefty is still in the concussion protocol, though he's been symptom-free since Sept. 13 (one day after his Week 2 concussion on "Thursday Night Football.")

"(Head coach) Mike McDaniel has said multiple times that the progression thru protocol won’t happen until he returns to practice," the media member wrote on X. "A player has to practice in order to progress through the protocol, but they can’t practice until they are eligible to return from IR, hence Tua’s prolonged stay. The final stage before clearance is non-contact football activity — so unless the Dolphins tell us he has cleared, we will not be able to tell simply by observing him at practice (all practice activities are non-contact for quarterbacks.)"