Knee jerk reaction around draft time was the Bears reached on Kyle Long. But the more you hear out of training camp you hear about a guy who has incredible size, athleticism and a tough MFer attitude. He is still a raw player learning technique and the intricacies of offensive line play but has the skills to be a tackle.

So why do the Bears pencil him at guard? I can understand the placement if both tackle positions were settled but right tackle has become a competition between Webb, Britton and Mills. Long isn't better than these guys? Kyle Long will be 25 in December. His window of production is shorter than all 1st round picks. The Bears are burning a year developing him at guard when he's clearly more valuable and suited to be a tackle. The genius of the modern GM Phil Emery I guess.

Wouldn't what position he plays be on the coaching staff and not the GM?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Yes and no. Phil Emery seems to have forced the coaching staff's hand. The only other option at RG is James Brown. Why not resign Lance Louis? He was the Bears best lineman last year and would've came cheap.

And I still can't shake Emery's influence in the McClellin pick. The kid has been a linebacker his whole life and Emery slots him out of position as a DE. This will be the year to see what Shea is so I don't want to make any final judgements.

I've just come away very impressed from interviews of Long. The guy appears like he'll be a beast so just curious as to why aren't the Bears maximizing him.

He will be a RT by next year, possible Pro Ball Talent.

Hub will then admit he is a clueless as to his football knowledge

"Phil Emery totally blew that pick and I am not backing down on this one!"

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Speaking of Hub, it was announced in today's DH that he has signed on to provide additional Bears coverage. Front page story in my version of the DH.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

To be negative on any sports team is one of the easiest things to do. To report the Bears wont make the Super Bowl or Cubs and Sox wont win a WS, bulls not be a ring team, is just so easy, You have great odds every year you will be right. It's just reporting obvious crap and this is what Hub does.

Hub always says this "I am not sold on____________" Well, I am not sold on Hub!

Give me an NFl player and I will find shortcoming.

Brady cant move and he doesnt have a great arm! Thats a Hub report.

A really good NFL guy can tell me what will be good and why. Why they might win, not all the reasons they can lose.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Well, I believe Kyle Long has the talent to play pro ball this year.

I think you're missing my point. Why can't he be a RT this year? Bears are burning a year of his development teaching him a position in guard he's not best suited for. He'll learn and make mistakes at tackle but will it be any different than what Carimi gave last year or Mills/Webb will give this year? So by next year he'll have a notch on the belt and be ready to beast.

My question,outside of the Mannings,how many offsprings of NFL talents make it big at all in the NFL?
I can think of Kellen Winslow jr. and that's about it.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Sam and Sam Adams
Tony and Mike Adamle
Tony and Anthony Dorsett
Derrick and Jabar Gaffney
Bob and Brian Griese
Mark and Mark Ingram
Don and Matt (and Tim) Hasselbeck
Terry and Eric Metcalf

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

The Bears may think placing him at guard is better for his development than what I think is the more difficult position of RT. Even though he's going to be a RT, perhaps placing him there in his rookie year, especially since he's light on college experience, would be counterproductive for both him and the Bears' playoff aspirations.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I think they are hoping he can eventually be a LT not just a RT.

When a guard makes a mistake, there are usually enough safety nets not to get your QB destroyed. Not so at tackle. Additionally there are some athletic plays that are suited to his unique abilities, such as screens and traps, that are run much better out of the guard position.

I trust Kroemer at his job more than any other coach on staff.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

8 guys,some very good but how many 1000's have played?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

You are really on this guys bandwagon, wow.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Tonight Kyle Long proved he is the greatest linemen of all time.

Agreed. I would put him in the HOF now, but he wasn't drafted by Theo.

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He has been strong they just showed a highlight of him pulling and flattening a guy. He will make mistakes this year to be sure. Rather have that while being an animal than the crap I saw last couple years. Pro bowl blah blah. If he ends up as Van Horne I will be more than happy.

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Elections have consequences.

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Wait what about Fluker on SD with a size 22 foot?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

So lets waste his talent at guard!!! Yippee!

Bc they're too busy protecting an 18 million dollar QB.

2nd preseason game and they are wasting his talent at guard 2nd!?!?!?!

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Well,if he looked like shit,the pundits would be all over him. He does look great, but lets wait for game 1.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

let's slow down a little bit here. Sure this draft class will produce some perennial all pros but its not like every one of them is going to the hall of fame....BEARRRRRRSSSSSS!

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I went full meatball watching Kyle Long play yesterday. Even got excited when he ran over to pull that guy off BMarsh in the endzone. BEARS!

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Team Cutler.

I won't go as far as saying they're wasting him at Guard, but I've seen enough, and I'm calling it now: this guy is a player. He'll at least be a plus Guard. At least.

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You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

Isn't it great to have a draft class that actually produces from Day 1? By this time last year the beat reporters had already buried Mc Clellin, Hardin was IR, Rodriguez wasn't a TE. This year we have guys knocking MFers out like Cairo on an angry day against opponents first teams.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yeah, I was just talking with a guy I work with, and was mentioning how it's nice to not have a bunch of busts and red-shirted rookies. It's a low bar, but it's nice to see rookies that can actually play. I'm excited enough by Long that I think he has a good chance of justifying his draft slot.

_________________
You can't see me because of internet.

The landowner effectively owns part shares in millions of part-time slaves called, "taxpayers." -Roy L
A Personal Relationship with Jesus?

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/22010629 ... bears.html

First-round pick Kyle Long coming along quickly for Bears
BY ADAM L. JAHNS Staff Reporter August 18, 2013 6:19PM

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Will Bears open the season with two rookie linemen? It’s been done before
Updated: August 19, 2013 2:18AM

Bears rookie guard Kyle Long sat at his locker at Soldier Field in disbelief. He wouldn’t say it, but he just had turned in a dominating performance Thursday against the San Diego Chargers on national TV. He impressed with his strength, agility and nasty approach.

‘‘To think that 3½ [or] four years ago, I was selling T-Shirts at a Jack’s Surfboards in Newport Beach,’’ Long said. ‘‘And now I’m playing in Soldier Field. I have to pinch myself sometimes.’’

How far does he think he has come since the Bears drafted him 20th overall in April?

‘‘The game does slow down for you as the game goes,’’ Long said. ‘‘But I still have miles and miles to go.’’

Long, though, is proving to be a quicker study than he wants to give himself credit for. He has played at such a high level this preseason that his limited action at Oregon and being unable to take part in most of the Bears’ offseason training feel like distant concerns.

‘‘Normally, there is definitely a learning curve, either on the offensive line or the defensive line,’’ said former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah, an analyst for NFL Network and NFL.com. ‘‘It’s a little steeper than what he’s shown. He’s just taken right to it. You just don’t want to say that everything comes down to the genes, but he’ll tell you . . . he’s got football in his blood and that this is what he was born to do. It definitely shows so far. The way that he’s playing with limited experience is pretty impressive.’’

Pro Football Focus, which the Bears and other teams have used, rates Long as the best guard of the preseason. In PFF’s ratings system, Long produced a 5.7 mark in 33 snaps against the Chargers. Last season, the best rating a Bears guard produced was Lance Louis’ 3.4 in Week 2.

‘‘On any given play, a lineman is going to get either a positive, a negative or a zero for kind of a wash,’’ said PFF analyst Sam Monson, who handled the Chargers-Bears game. ‘‘Essentially, when it comes to running plays, it’s where the point of attack was, what Long was doing in relation to that point of attack and if he blocked his guys successfully away from the point of attack or whether he got beaten toward the point of attack and caused some form of problem in that way. Long was just consistently turning his guy, getting him out of the way, moving him away from the point of attack, giving the runner more space to work in and just chipping away, getting positive after positive.

‘‘When it comes to pass protection, it’s just a case of whether he gave up pressure or not. . . . He had a dozen snaps pass-protecting and didn’t give up any pressure.’’

Jeremiah said Long reminded him of Marshal Yanda, a two-time Pro Bowl guard whom the Baltimore Ravens drafted when Jeremiah was on their staff, because of his versatility, strong hands and nastiness. Monson likened him to Evan Mathis, the veteran Philadelphia Eagles guard who consistently tops PFF’s rankings.

‘‘Just every single snap, play in, play out, [Mathis is] winning,’’ Monson said. ‘‘That’s pretty much what Long was doing. He was just winning every time he met a defender.’’

There will be tough moments ahead for Long, who credits offensive coordinator/line coach Aaron Kromer and his veteran teammates for his progress. Jeremiah said he can see Long struggling with more complex stunts during the regular season, ‘‘but that’s something you just have to go through in order to see it and learn it.’’

Guard, though, looks like an ideal position for Long and what the Bears are trying to accomplish offensively. Jeremiah said Long’s most impressive blocks against the Chargers weren’t ones on which he buried defenders but ones on which he mirrored players in space, adjusted and latched on.

‘‘First of all, he’s playing his natural position inside at guard,’’ Jeremiah said. ‘‘He’s taken to it really, really well. With interior offensive linemen, you’re fortunate if you can get a guy that’s either athletic at the second level or a people-mover at the line of the scrimmage. So far in those two games, he’s shown that he can do both. Those [players] are a little harder to find.’’

Email: ajahns@suntimes.com

Twitter: @adamjahns

a quote that should be handed out to every parent pushing his kid to specialize in one sport at the age of 10 and sending him to every camp and"all star" team in some abstract hope of a professional career

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.