Sports Time Radio

I know I’ve mentioned before that the hosts of Sports Time Radio live in the Chicagoland area. That means that I’ve seen quite a bit of Kyle Long during his playing career.

Now Long kind of surprisingly retired after the 2019 season, but to be fair he dealt with a lot of injuries in his career. Long spent seven NFL season with the Chicago Bears and in only two of those season did he play in all 16 games do to injuries. So while his decision to retire was only kind of a surprise.

What may have been more of a shock than Long’s retirement was the fact that he decided to return to the NFL this season. Long signed with the Kansas City Chiefs this off season.

The Bears took Long with the 20th pick in the 2013 NFL draft and while Long’s time in Chicago wasn’t as lengthy as some offensive lineman he did make three Pro Bowls while with the Bears.

It’s became very clear in the Super Bowl that the Chiefs where very much in need of offensive line help. So with Long’s desire to return to the NFL he may as well sign with a team that gives him a very good chance to go to and win a Super Bowl. Now that’s something he wasn’t going to get with the Bears.

Unfortunately for Long his old nemesis the injury bug struck again. During practice on Wednesday Long injured his knee and while the Chiefs are hoping that he be able to avoid surgery it’s unclear right now what the injury exactly is. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid mentioned that Long had been injured. Reid also went on to say that the Chiefs still evaluating the injury, but didn’t think he suffered ligament damage.

Now if Long can avoid surgery there’s a chance that he could be back for Kansas City’s Week 1 game against the Cleveland Browns. Now if Long has to undergo surgery even if it’s minor that timetable for his return may change.

It’s another tough break for a player who when healthy was considered one of the top offensive lineman man the entire NFL.

Chiefs fans will now have to wait and see what is exactly wrong with Long’s knee and if he’ll need surgery or not. Of course you do have to wonder if the Chiefs now need to try and add some depth to that offensive line.

If Long does end up missing regular season games it looks like Laurent Duvernay-Tardif would be the player to step into Long’s spot. Now the Chiefs do have other guards who may get a look. Andrew Wylie, Nick Allegretti, Trey Smith and Yasir Durant are also on their roster.

Alright; so what do you see Kansas City doing? Do they go out and add a guard? Or do they stand pat with the players they have on their roster and hope for a quick recovery by Long?

While we’re on the NFL. Was anyone really surprised that Aaron Rodgers didn’t show up to the Green Bay Packers training camp. I’m sure Packers fans where hoping that he’d be their, but come on is it really breaking news that he didn’t show up?

As of right now it appears that the Packers are still holding their ground with Rodgers and he either plays for them or he doesn’t play at all. The Denver Broncos still seem to be the team that everybody thinks will be the landing spot for Rodgers if he is traded, but as of now I don’t think there have been any actually trade talks between the two teams; just media rumors.

As for the Packers themselves they appear to be working with a plan that Jordan Love may be their starting quarterback in Week 1 against the New Orleans Saints. Love has been taking all of the first team reps in practice which makes a lot of sense to do with a quarterback that didn’t take a snap last season.

As Packers fans and just fans of the NFL sit and wait to see what happens with Rodgers the Packers seem to be doing their best to move on if they have to.

Don’t forget to tune in to the live edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com. If for some reason you miss the podcast live all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you choose to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime