Five years ago today, the Bears lost star offensive lineman Kyle Long for the year with a severe right ankle injury. Unfortunately, his health troubles did not end with the 2016 season.
Long’s right ankle injury capped his season after just eight games. But, before that, he performed as one of the best offensive linemen in the game. Long made three straight Pro Bowls in his first three seasons, seeing time at both guard and tackle. And, in all three years, Pro Football Focus had him ranked top five at his position.
“It seems like we’ve got somebody freaking hurt every game,” left guard Josh Sitton said after the ’16 injury. “It sucks watching him down there on the ground. It’s tough to see one of your friends, one of your teammates and a helluva competitor, he was down there and he was in a lot of pain. It was tough to see.”
Long missed only one regular season game from 2013-2015. But, from 2016 through 2019, he made just 30 appearances out of a possible 64. It wasn’t just the ankle — there was a labrum tear in his left shoulder, triceps strains, painful hip injuries, and other maladies. After he was shut down in ’19, we didn’t hear much about Long in the early part of 2020. Then, there were summer rumblings of a return.
“Full transparency I miss football, but at what cost? [Still,] I’m most likely gonna be on golf courses instead of gridirons,” Long tweeted, before adding. “I didn’t retire, I got fired.”
The Chiefs hired/signed Long this past March, but a June knee injury kept him from joining the Week 1 roster. Now, for the good news – the Chiefs designated Long for return last week. Now, just before his 33rd birthday, Long could be on the verge of completing his comeback.
Seriously. Why is this even a post? Down to IR moves?
Would you prefer another update on OBJ instead?
Can never get enough of those.
Or Watson?
Now that Beckham and Eichel have found new homes, We’re down to Ben Simmons and Watson mindless speculation.
It’s a shame. He was a beast and could’ve anchored that O-line in Chicago for years. Hope he makes it back.
The Bears have a dumb GM, A dumb Head Coach, An inexperienced D Coordinator, A dumb football team, Bad Owners and no draft choices for the immediate future. There hasn’t even been an article on this crap site for a month. Might as well write about lame stuff from 5 years ago.