Kyle Long elected to step away from the game of football this past January citing a need to get his body right after being hampered with injuries for the majority of his career.
On Friday morning, The Daily News’ Manish Mehta reported that the Jets were looking to coax Long out of retirement. Long immediately put a stop to that rumor, though, telling WGN’s Rick Tarsitano that there was no truth to Mehta’s report.
This wouldn’t have been the first time that the Jets have tried to coax a former Pro Bowl offensive lineman out of retirement under Joe Douglas. New York was able to convince Ryan Kalil to be the team’s starting center in 2019, but that experiment ended up hurting the Jets more than benefitting them. However, that won’t be the case for Long, who shut down the rumors before they gained more traction.
While Long enjoyed a successful 10-year career with the Bears, his tenure was marred by injuries. Long played a full 16-game slate only twice (2013 and 2015). Since then, Long hasn’t played in more than 10 games, dealing with injuries to his labrum, triceps, foot, ankle and shoulder. Most recently, Long suffered a hip injury early in the 2019 season, forcing the Bears to place him on season-ending injured reserve.
Long does have multiple meaningful connections to the Jets. During one of his three Pro Bowl seasons in 2015, Adam Gase served as the Bears offensive coordinator while Dowell Loggains was the team’s quarterbacks coach. In addition, Douglas was also Chicago’s Director of College Scouting.
At the end of the day, those connections aren’t trying to get Long out of retirement, though. The Jets may not want to repeat what happened with Kalil and Long appears to have no interest in returning to football, as he’s slimmed down from his past physique as an NFL offensive lineman.
