Buffalo Bills safety Taylor Rapp was forced to miss the Week 5 game after suffering a concussion the week before. Rapp has since been cleared to play and will make his return in Week 6 against the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football.”

Rapp will wear new headgear during the primetime match.

On Monday night, Rapp will become the first Bills player to wear the Guardian hat in a game.

“Definitely, I’m wearing it,” Rapp told The Buffalo News on Thursday. “I enjoyed wearing (the cap) during training camp and (also) switched to the new helmet. It was definitely something I was (already) thinking about.”

Rapp has suffered concussions in the past in his career while previously playing for the Los Angeles Rams.

The Guardian cap, invented by Guardian Sports in 2010, is backed by science in the same way as airbags in a vehicle.

Here’s a direct quote from the Guardian Sports website about the Guardian caps:

Physics says that a ‘soft’ outer material with the right density, stiffness and energy-absorbing properties reduces the initial severity of impact. Lower forces are then transmitted to the hard shell, which in turn transmits lower forces to the soft inner helmet filling and then to the head. Very similar to a NASCAR driver and the soft wall technology that tracks have taken over or even cars and the soft bumpers and airbags that are now required. The Guardian Cap serves the same purpose for an athlete’s head: a soft barrier between the head and impact.

Considering Rapp’s past head injuries and his downhill style, the cap makes a lot of sense as he recovers from his most recent concussion.

The NFL has only seen a handful of players wear the cap for six weeks. That number should continue to rise as more players see the benefit. The Bills and Rapp use them as a precaution after a concussion seems like a good idea for the player and the team. Maybe that’s a trend we’ll see in the future.