Kyle Long back for sure

[Nelly]

Chicago Bears Kyle Long restructures contract

I guess i'll give this a thumbs up. There's little chance he'll be able to play a lot of games again, let alone at the high level he used to. But, he is a locker room leader and will be needed to help keep the team's feet on the ground after last season's big success.

 

[beardown07]

Definitely a position that needs to addressed in the draft, either way.

 

[Lake Shore Drive]

Agree with both of you. Personally, I'm glad he's back and actually hopeful that we can get a 16 game out of him this year. Not counting on that by any means, but I'm not going to rule it out either. But as BD said, I think the OL needs to be addressed at some point in this draft. Depending on who we lose and/or pick up in free agency, it may even be with our first pick in Rd 3.

 

[richig07]

Long played solidly after his return. I think he's still effective when he's out there... he's just not out there a whole bunch. Leaning on him creates a liability. We need to go into the season with good interior line depth and I agree that it will be addressed in the draft.

On the bright side, Leno/Whitehair/Massie all tend to stay healthy *knock on wood* and Daniels did at least for one season.

Either way, classy/team move taking the pay cut to free up the cap space.

 

[Nelly]

Long played solidly after his return. I think he's still effective when he's out there... he's just not out there a whole bunch. Leaning on him creates a liability. We need to go into the season with good interior line depth and I agree that it will be addressed in the draft.

On the bright side, Leno/Whitehair/Massie all tend to stay healthy *knock on wood* and Daniels did at least for one season.

Either way, classy/team move taking the pay cut to free up the cap space.

Yep. Whitehair isn't locked up long-term but the dude has been healthy. Massie and Leno are solid/good and have been healthy. No reason to believe that Daniels will be an injury risk. So we're in good shape with the starters. Coward looks promising as a swing tackle but we need some good interior depth to be available for Long. Witzmann did a nice job. Having another young, high ceiling project or two would be nice.