With no rehab and no practice restrictions, two-time Pro Bowl guard aiming to regain old form
Fully healthy after three injury marred seasons, there are times when Kyle Long feels like a new man.
“Sometimes when I do stuff physically now, people kind of look at me like a guy who came back from the dead — like, where has this guy been?’ And that’s nice,” Long said Wednesday after the Bears’ offseason practice at Halas Hall. “I’d like to do it for a long time and be able to help my team any way I can.”
It remains to be seen if Long, who turned 30 last December, can regain his Pro Bowl form — or if he can just get through a 16-game NFL season without another mishap. Since playing 47 of his first 48 games in the NFL in 2013-15 — and making the Pro Bowl each season — Long has missed 22 games the past three seasons and played only 21 from start to finish.
But after recovering from a Week 8 injury to his right foot in time to play in the wild-card game against the Eagles, Long is ready to go. He celebrated a hospital-free, rehab-free offseason by going on vacation.
“I got to leave the Halas Hall training room,” Long said. “I was in Hawaii for about 10 days and that was nice. Hawaii’s beautiful. They love Olin [Kreutz, the former Bears center from Honolulu]. Somebody finds out you’re on the Bears, all they want to talk about is Olin, which is beautiful.”
Now, Long has reached another milestone. He’s fully participating in OTA practices, without needing maintenance days. “Feels good — lucky to be out here and with my team in the spring,” Long said. “And happy to do it.”
Even before he was injured last year, the Bears had to limit Long’s work in training camp and through the season because of wear-and-tear issues. At this point, they don’t have to do that.
“He’s developing a consistency in his training,” Bears offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said. “When you’re in and you’re out it’s hard to build consistency — that’s what I see right now from him. Gradually you can see the improvement fundamentally from him because he can put back-to-back-to-back days together. He can make a mistake and correct it and get better.”
There still was a reality to deal with. The Bears and Long agreed to restructure Long’s four-year $40 million contract extension, which included a 2019 pay cut.
“I knew my position and their position and we knew mutually we had to get something done,” Long said. “It was in the best of both our interests to secure my future here and secure some finances for things [the Bears] needed to handle.”
The agreement was reached with no hard feelings.
“Anytime somebody’s ripping a check out of your book, it’s no fun,” Long said. “But at the same time, you see it. I see it every day with the guys we’re practicing against — the new guys we’ve signed. It’s a good feeling knowing I did the right thing and they did the right thing by me. They handed it the right way and I respect them for it.”
All that’s left is for Long to stay healthy and show whether he can be the player he was.
“I couldn’t answer that,” Hiestand said. “I do know that your preparation has a lot to do with your performance and when you’re able to prepare properly — being healthy and able to do things daily that all the other player are doing — that question will be answered when he hits the field in the fall. And how he holds up as the season goes along.
“But [being healthy is] not something that he’s really had for a couple of years. So it’s going to be interesting to see how that works out, having a real offseason. Because we all know he’s talented. And it’s been two or three years he hasn’t had this, so we’ll see.”
