The Facts: Nearly six months after suffering a vicious hit in Washington’s third preseason game, which forced him to miss the entire 2019 regular season, HC Ron Rivera told the Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue that the tight end has still not been released from the concussion protocol.

Diehards Line: As the Athletic's Rhiannon Walker noted, we know that three weeks after the hit, Reed was practicing on a limited basis, with his final participation coming on Sept. 12, so Reed had advanced past the football-specific activities of the protocol. That means that either Reed was not cleared by a team physician to compete or a team doctor did clear him, and an independent neurological consultant did not. For the next month, though, Reed did not participate in practice in any capacity, and on Oct. 12, the team placed him on injured reserve, marking it the first time in his career that he didn’t play a single game in a season. He is expected to be released, a move that would free up $8.5 million in cap space. ... We'll continue to watch for more.