INDIANAPOLIS -- The NFL's head, neck and spine committee introduced a new concussion-assessment protocol Friday.
"This is a guideline and not a mandate," said Margot Putukian, a doctor and member of the committee and chair of the return to play subcommittee.
Under the new protocol, team medical personnel will have the option to use a new standardized assessment that combines a symptom checklist, a limited neurological examination that includes a cognitive evaluation, and a balance assessment.
Teams will be advised to do the assessment in the locker room and not along the sidelines during a game. The committee received input from the NFLPA and the union's medical advisors.
"I love what we are doing with the league," Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff said. "It's about the safety of the players. We still have a fantastic product. It continues to be a very aggressive product."
The league can't unilaterally impose the guidelines.
"It takes a little bit of the gray area out of it in my mind," Dimitroff said. "It makes sure that we have some checks and balances. I think it's positive for both sides."
The league has recognized the danger of players with concussions returning to action too soon and possibly risking additional brain damage.
"I remember that many years ago when we were saying, ‘you have to go back in there no matter how you feel,'" Dimitroff said. "Now, I think we are just playing a lot smarter. I think that's good."
Lockette a lock?
Former Fort Valley State wide receiver Ricardo Lockette has met with the Falcons and had an interview scheduled with team executives on Friday evening.
Lockette, who is from Albany, originally committed to Auburn, but was an academic non-qualifier. He elected to attend Fort Valley State instead of going the junior-college route.
He's 6-foot-2, 211 pounds and has blinding speed. In practice, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.26 seconds. Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson and former Falcons pick Rondel Melendez, a seventh-rounder in 1999, ran the fastest time in the 40 at a combine, at 4.24 seconds.
"It would mean the world to me," Lockette said. "A small-school guy from a small town. It would probably be on the [front page] of every newspaper and the talk of every sports talk [show] the next morning. It would be a dream come true."
Lockette knows he'll have to run some crisp routes and catch the ball well during drills.
"That’s more important than the 40," Lockette said. "They all know that I can run."
Allen gets some tips
Former Georgia Tech running back Anthony Allen got advice from Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jonathan Dwyer, a former Tech star who went through the combine process last season.
"The biggest thing that he told me was that I have to work on pass protection," Allen said. "They want to see me in pass protection because all we do is run the ball. That's something that I've been working on."
During the interview process, Allen will have to address why he transferred from Louisville.
"I originally signed with Bobby Petrino, and he left after my first year," Allen said. "The new coach came in and I played with him for a year. I didn't like the way the system was going, so I decided to leave."
Allen said he hopes to show NFL scouts that he's a complete running back.
"They have me down as a guy who can just run it between the tackles," Allen said. "I want to show them that I can take it to the perimeter, and that I can it the distance."
Gailey on Newton
Buffalo coach Chan Gailey, the former head coach at Georgia Tech, has the third pick in the draft.
Gailey said he is just starting to study former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, who played only one season, and that was in a spread offense.
“I don’t think developing the one-year guy is as big as developing the guy that has not been in a typical type of offense,” Gailey said. “When you’re trying to change a guy’s thought process into a certain mode, that’s a little harder to me than it is to take a guy that’s a one-year guy."
Etc.
Auburn wide receiver Darvin Adams, of Harrison High, said he left school early because of his family. "I had two good seasons, and we won the national championship, that's basically the reason why," Adams said. "I have one little girl." ... The NFL issued a record 715 credentials for the scouting combine. The previous mark of 628 was set last season.
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