The Bucs have used rookie Jaelon Darden as their main kick and punt returner since Week 7, replacing Jaydon Mickens, who just signed with the Jaguars off the practice squad a week ago. There might be two different players taking the kicks and punts this week, however, depending on Darden’s status for Sunday.

Darden left the game in the second half of the Bucs’ 38-31 win over the Colts after sustaining a concussion. Bruce Arians gave an update on him the following day.

“He’s in the [concussion] protocol,” Arians said. “So we’ll just wait and see how that goes.”

Each concussion situation is different for every player due to severity and recovery time. The Bucs lost Antoine Winfield, Jr. for two games in Weeks 5 and 6 as he recovered from the same injury.

It’s too early to determine whether Darden can play on Sunday when the Bucs travel to play the Falcons, but there needs to be a plan in place in the case that he can’t go. Since he does both kick and punt returns, Arians listed two players that would handle each responsibility.

“Obviously, if he clears the protocols, he’ll be the guy back there,” Arians said. “If not, ‘Gio’ (Giovani Bernard) would take over the kickoff return and Scotty Miller will probably do the punt returns.”

Having Bernard as a kick returner makes sense. He’s a veteran player that could handle that role. Bernard has actually returned three kicks this year on shorter kickoffs, returning them for a total of 53 yards.

The idea of Miller on punt return is an intriguing and tempting one. Since getting drafted by the Bucs, the thought of Miller fielding punts has been floated around, but he’s never done it in a regular season game. He regularly catches them at the start of practice to get reps in.

It would make sense to have Miller in that role, as he is one of the fastest players on the team. Tampa Bay recently implemented him as a gunner on punt coverage, where he recovered a fumble after a botched fair catch in the Bucs’ latest win. Maybe he’s found a niche getting involved on special teams.