Dolphins receiver Daewood Davis was released from the hospital and will travel back to Miami on Sunday following a scary scene near the end of their preseason game Saturday.
Davis attempted to make a catch against the Jaguars and lay motionless on the field before being carted off.
The team announced the update via a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and added that Davis, a 24-year-old undrafted rookie, would make the trip from Jacksonville to Miami with team personnel.
Davis’ injury forced the suspension of the game in the fourth quarter, with the Dolphins adding on social media Saturday night that he was conscious, was taken to Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville and was moving all of his extremities.
Head coach Mike McDaniel, emotional in his postgame press conference, said that after surveying the scene and watching the reactions from players on the field, he thought it would’ve been “inappropriate to play football.”
“The two teams agreed that football shouldn’t be played anymore tonight,” McDaniel said, according to the Associated Press. “Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the right call.”
With around 8:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, quarterback James Blackman threw a pass toward Davis but the pass bounced incomplete as two Jacksonville defenders converged to make a tackle.
Davis rolled over but then didn’t move, prompting center Alama Uluave to race over and wave trainers onto the field.
Players from both teams gathered around Davis while he was immobilized and carted off the field, and the AP reported that McDaniel and Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson spoke on the field before the game was suspended.
“I think it would have been extremely hard for the guys to have gone out and continued to play,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said, according to the AP. “The kind of person that Daewood is, a lot of guys respect him. He’s very well respected in the locker room. He’s a great player. He’s a great teammate. He’s a great person.
“It just would have been hard to have gone back out after seeing something like that.”
McDaniel echoed a similar sentiment in his press conference, referencing Davis’ “magnetic” personality evident throughout the preseason in the position’s room and the offense’s meetings — when he sang a song and told a story.
“He’s got a cool personality to him,” McDaniel said, “and guys really saw that from then on … From then on, he was a guy that his teammates really root for. That tells you everything about a human being.”
It marked the second time this preseason that a game was suspended due to a serious injury.
During the Patriots-Packers game earlier this month, rookie cornerback Isaiah Bolden — a seventh-round pick in April’s NFL Draft — attempted a tackle, collided with a teammate and was carted off the field.
Bolden was released from the hospital the next day, and the Patriots’ joint practices the following week against the Titans were canceled.