HOUSTON — Miami Dolphins wide receiver Grant DuBose was hospitalized and in stable condition after suffering a serious head injury during Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans, and he will not immediately travel back to South Florida with the team.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said there has been “positive feedback” after DuBose received head and neck imaging, but DuBose would remain in Houston overnight for additional evaluation.
DuBose was taken off the field on a stretcher after sustaining a hit to the helmet from Texans safety Calen Bullock on a pass attempt from Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the third quarter of Sunday’s game. DuBose, 23, remained motionless on the field for roughly 11 minutes while receiving medical attention.
His facemask and helmet were removed by medical personnel before his jersey was cut off. DuBose was shirtless and wearing a neck brace before being placed on a spine board, strapped onto a stretcher and briskly wheeled to an ambulance and taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital.
At one point while DuBose was down, the Dolphins moved away from him and into a circle where they kneeled and prayed. McDaniel and Houston coach DeMeco Ryans embraced at one point while DuBose was still on the field.
“When you see a guy down on the field like that, it’s very hard to see and we’re just praying that all is well with him and that he recovers as quickly as possible,” Ryans said.
Sunday marked DuBose’s first game since Week 2, when a shoulder injury landed him on injured reserve.
Bullock was penalized for unnecessary roughness for hitting a defenseless receiver on the play.
“I was praying that he would be OK,” Bullock said. “I wasn’t trying to go out there and hurt nobody.”
After the game, Tagovailoa, who has had multiple concussions during his career, said he blamed himself for putting his teammate in that position.
“I’m my toughest critic when it comes to ball placement, when it comes to knowing where to go with the ball and all of that,” Tagovailoa said. “And I just feel bad that I even put him in that situation to have gotten hit. It was tough to move on after that happened.
“I heard some good news that he’s doing well, he’s recovering, but we all know I’ve gone through something very similar, and that’s no fun. You never want to be put in any of those situations. But you also understand that this is a physical sport, it’s a contact sport. And again, I just think of what I could have done to have not put Grant in that situation.”
Teammate Tyreek Hill said after the game that DuBose was in “good spirits right now,” that “he’s moving … and that’s all that matters.”
“It was scary,” Hill said. “Just being on the field, seeing it, and then actually seeing one of your brothers laying the way he was laying, it’s scary. People don’t understand the sacrifice that we have to make to play this game, that we put our bodies through.”
The Dolphins went on to score their first touchdown after play resumed in the 20-12 loss, which dropped their record to 6-8.
McDaniel said while it’s difficult to move forward after a situation like that, he forces himself to because of the people relying on him to “do my job.”
“I’m in the moment with the player and then, when the game starts, I got a lot of people counting on me to make sound decisions,” McDaniel said. “So I don’t really have a choice in the matter as I look at it. Yeah, that’s one for me, specifically, that has never been or will never be easy, but it’s not hard for me to recognize how many people are depending on me to do my job as well. So I don’t really give myself the option [to shut down].”
Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle was also injured Sunday, leaving with a knee injury in the first half.
McDaniel said Waddle was “super frustrated” by the injury, and the team wouldn’t have an update on him until Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.