The latest injury Kyle Long‘s sustained will result in a lengthy absence for the former Pro Bowl blocker. The Bears announced they’ve placed their top guard on IR on Saturday.
Long suffered a foot injury in Week 8 and was expected to miss between one and two months of action. It will now be at least two, per IR rules. The sixth-year veteran cannot return until Week 17, if the Bears were intent on bringing Long back. It would be an interesting decision if the Bears were contending for a playoff spot at that point.
The Bears promoted running back Taquan Mizzell from their practice squad, Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune tweets.
This will obviously hurt Chicago’s O-line. Long has dealt with numerous injuries in recent years but returned to be a well-regarded blocker in 2018. Pro Football Focus graded Long as the league’s No. 31 guard through seven games.
Eric Kush also missed Week 8, bringing second-round rookie James Daniels into the starting lineup for the first time. Daniels will be back with the first-stringers in Week 9. If Kush can’t go on Sunday, the Bears have former Chiefs interior lineman Bryan Witzmann and second-year UDFA Rashaad Coward as options. Kush, though, got in a full practice on Friday, placing him on track to be able to suit up Sunday.
Long played in 47 games during his first three NFL seasons — all Pro Bowl campaigns — but missed 14 games between the 2016-17 slates. He’ll add at least eight missed contests to that total. The Bears signed Long to a four-year, $40MM extension in September 2016. The veteran’s injury trouble began immediately after that deal was finalized.
It won’t really hurt as bad as the media makes it out. The Bears are used to Long being injured.
On a side note who judges the grades gor pro football focus? Is it former linemen?
Just always wanted to know
The injury probably won’t impact the Bears turnover ratio but I don’t expect them to remain 2nd in time of possession.
Here’s to hoping that Daniels settles in nicely as a starter.