Seattle Seahawks’ Darrell Taylor ‘Moving All of His Extremities’ After Being Immobilized and Taken Off Field: Coach

Darrell Taylor #52 of the Seattle Seahawks is carted off the field after an injury during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 17, 2021. (Joe Sargent/Getty Images)

Seattle Seahawks’ defensive end Darrell Taylor is “moving all of his extremities” after being taken off field and rushed to hospital during Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Taylor was immobilized and taken off the field on a stretcher with roughly three minutes left in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s game at Pittsburgh.

Video footage appeared to show him suffer a head-neck injury after being crushed underneath a Pittsburgh player during a tackle.

Yahoo Sports reported that Taylor was diving to tackle running back Najee Harris when the crown of his head made direct contact with the torso of teammate Al Woods, a 330-pound defensive tackle.

The game was delayed for several minutes while medical personnel stabilized his head and neck as he lay on the field while both fans and players watched on with concern. Players from both the Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers surrounded Taylor as he received medical treatment and was placed on a stretcher.

He was then taken by ambulance to the level 1 trauma center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where preliminary CT scans came back negative, his coach Pete Carroll said. However, the extent of his injuries is unclear.

Taylor, 24, will undergo further tests but was moving his extremities, Seahawks confirmed.

“The CT scans were clear, so that’s a really good preliminary report,” Carroll said. “There’s some more tests to be done and stuff like that, so we’re thrilled about that news.”

Taylor has also been given the all-clear to fly home with the team after the game, and Carroll noted that if it had been up to Taylor, he wouldn’t have left the field on a stretcher.

“He was so mad about having to be taken off the field like that,” Carroll said. “He wanted to get up, they just wouldn’t let him do it, because they had to do all the secure methods to take care of him and all of that. But man, he didn’t want any part of that.”

Former Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who was initially left paralyzed after suffering a severe spinal cord injury while making a tackle against the Bengals during a game in 2017, took to Twitter to show his support for Taylor.

“I pray Taylor is okay. God is strong he will help us over come all obstacles,” he wrote on Sunday night.

NFL reporter Joe Fann also wrote on Twitter, “Man I felt this from Jamal right here. No idea how they keep playing after witnessing that. Brutal brutal sport. Prayers up for Darrell Taylor.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately won Sunday’s game with a final score of 23–30.

Taylor, was drafted by the Seahawks in the second round, with the no. 48 overall pick, out of Tennessee in 2020.

He was unable to play a single game of his rookie season last year, spending the entire regular season on the Non-Football Injury list while he recovered from a January 2020 surgery to repair a stress fracture in his leg.