Lost in the mess that developed during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, was an odd sequence of plays that involved tight end Cameron Brate.

With little time remaining in the first half, Brate ran into Chris Godwin during a route and appeared groggy after he picked himself up. This would usually call for a stop in play by the NFL's independent "lookout" that looks for concussion symptoms on the field and immediately calls for play to be halted.

But that didn't happen. In fact, Brate went off the field on his own, came back into the game before the half ended, got at least one target, before being ruled out for the rest of the game with a concussion in the second half.

It was a very bad look on the Buccaneers and the NFL, especially with the Tua Tagovailoa situation still very much on the minds of safety enthusiasts that have criticized the league's handling of concussions recently.

Buccaneers legend Tony Dungy was one of those outside voice that voiced criticism, and he said some pretty damning words.

Broken system. I was on the sideline very close to Brate-obvious he had his bell rung. There’s a league appointed spotter in the press box who should stop play & alert the referee. Brate shouldn’t have been allowed to return until after an evaluation. Why didn’t that happen??? https://t.co/POguZtRxhp

— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) October 3, 2022

Dungy is right and it isn't even close.

The NFL's concussion protocol has seen itself take a step back recently in terms of efficiency and usefulness. And for a high speed game like football, that's a big time red flag.

It'll be interesting to see if the concussion protocol undergoes a bit of a facelift soon, because endangering player safety with the current system can't go on for much longer.

Featured image via Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports