
Bears first round choice Kyle Long at the Senior Bowl
Good thing the Chicago Bears annual draft party wasn’t scheduled until Friday night. With the NFL draft’s first round in the books late Thursday evening, the Bears reach of Oregon offensive lineman Kyle Long would have been ment with a cascade of “why’s and “oh no’s” by savvy Bears fans who expected their favorite club to take advantage of several higher rated players left on the board.
The Bears had their choice of the top-rated tight end on the board in Notre Dame’s Tyler Eifert, Irish teammate, LB Mantei Te’o who would have filled a need, athletic DT Shariff Floyd of Florida, and highly regarded cornerbacks Desmond Trufant of Washington and Xavier Rhodes of Florida State. Instead, they bypassed all for Long, who had only five career starts at Oregon.
Despite his inexperience, the Bears expect Long to push for immediate playing time.
In fact, the choice of Long, at best a mid-second or third round pick in the eyes of most observers, rated as one of the surprises of a wild and highly unpredicatble first round that saw only one quarterback chosen and no running backs, the first time that’s occurred since 1963.
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