Oregon offensive tackle Kyle Long is coming to the NFL this year. He's Chris Long's younger brother, and when you watch the video you can see and hear the resemblance. He also happens to be a pretty good offensive lineman, which is a position of need for the St. Louis Rams.
Long might have to move inside at the pro level. His arms are a little short for what is typically preferred from an outside lineman in the NFL. He's already been working some at guard this week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile.
#Oregon OL Kyle Long at 32 1/8 arm length, Kent St OL Brian Winters at 32. Not ideal if teams see their future at OT #SeniorBowl
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) January 21, 2013
#Oregon Kyle Long looks much much more comfortable inside. Lining up at LG now next to Fisher
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) January 21, 2013
He's a player that many expected to show well for himself this week. Walter Football had this to say following Long's first day of practice:
The beginning of the one-on-ones were for run plays on which the defensive linemen were trying to hold their ground at the point of attack. Long had an impressive play where he rode North Carolina defensive tackle Sylvester Williams about 10 yards towards the sideline. Long got into Williams' pads and had him on roller skates. Long had another win against Williams in the pass-rushing one-on-ones by stopping a pass rush cold.
Long and Fisher had impressive wins against speed rushes from Illinois defensive end Michael Buchanan. They both showed nice length and quick feet on those reps. It wasn't all good for Long in the team scrimmage as a few defenders pushed him into quarterback Ryan Nassib to blow up a screen pass. The ball ended up going straight into the back of Long's helmet.
A Long and Long combo on the Rams would be interesting, but the Philadelphia Eagles might be inclined to grab him first, since Chip Kelly is the one responsible for turning him into a top prospect. Long, by the way, loves Kelly's offensive system. Here's what he had to say about it:
"You need to have mental toughness, physical toughness and you have to be in condition to play in an offense that moves in such a high tempo. We play at a fast tempo and then when we need to, we kick it into overdrive. He'll say, 'We're going to go tempo here' and everyone looks around and we all lick our chops because we know the guy across from us is going to be more exhausted than we are because we prepared and practiced at a high level.
"[NFL defenses will be] faster when the ball's snapped, but it's going to be difficult for them to get up there when you're running a play every 14 seconds."