Taysom Hill admits the symptoms stemming from a brutal hit to the head in Week 5 were scary, particularly the fact that he can't remember all of them.
Hill said he remembers the play itself -- a four verticals pattern -- but the rest is a blank. He can't remember anything that happened for about 45 minutes. He never lost consciousness as he was attended to by trainers, but the first thing he can remember was in the locker room after he was carted off the field.
"I think any time you’re dealing with head injuries it’s a scary thing. I think understanding concussions and how it works and everything else, I’m comfortable with — I know it was a concussion, I know it was a serious thing," Hill said. "But my ability to recover, I never felt like that was in jeopardy, to be fully healthy."
Hill missed the first two games following the Week 6 bye, and wasn't in attendance for either. He said he possibly could've attended the Week 8 game against Tampa Bay, but it wasn't worth the risk of exacerbating any lingering symptoms. The symptoms were primarily a headache, pressure at the back of his head, sensitivity to noise and fatigue.
Hill returned to action in Week 9 in his typical do-it-all role. Trevor Siemian got the start at quarterback following a season-ending injury to Jameis Winston, and that'll be the case again this week.
Related
The concussion was a significant one, Hill concedes, and it's the second in a short span after he suffered the first of his football playing career during the 2020 season. Hill says he's rewatched the hit by William Jackson III, and didn't see it as a defender making a play on the ball.
Hill has never played defense, he points out, and acknowledged it's a difficult thing to ask a player to react in those split-second situations.
After the game Jackson said he was playing the ball, and he was not fined for the hit by the NFL. Hill said Jackson did not reach out to him after the game.
“I mean, look, I’m not him. I don’t know what he was playing, or what he was — I think any time it ends up being a bam-bam hit or collision, I don’t know as a defensive guy, like how you can consciously make that decision in a split-second," Hill said. "But man, it sure looked like he wasn’t trying to make a play on the ball, you know? The way the hit happened. But I’ve never played defense, I don’t know what that’s like.”
Related
