Former Chicago Bears Pro Bowl player Kyle Long, who came out of retirement this season, is signing a one-year contract worth up to $ 5 million with the Kansas City Chiefs, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Long visited the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday.
Long is the latest addition to the Chiefs’ offensive line, as Kansas City is trying to renovate a unit that could have five new entrants in 2021 since the opening of last year’s season. The Chiefs recently agreed to a contract with former New England Patriots owner Joe Thuney.
The Chiefs recently released both initial tackles from last season, Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher. Two other players who started last season as starters, pivot Austin Reiter and point guard Kelechi Osemele, are unrestricted free agents.
They also expect the return of two players who gave up last season, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Lucas Niang.
Long gone without retirement with the hope of playing again in 2021, after announcing his retirement in January 2020, after seven seasons with the Bears.
Chosen 20th overall by the Bears in 2013, Long lost just one game in his first three seasons, but has appeared in just 30 regular season competitions in his past four years. He was selected for three consecutive Pro Bowls in his first three NFL seasons.
Long, 32, suffered a terrible ankle injury in 2016 that cost him the last eight games of that year and the first two games of the 2017 season. Long ended up losing six games in 2017 due to various illnesses, undergoing neck surgery. , shoulder and elbow in the off-season. He returned in time to start the first seven Bears games in 2018, before Chicago once again closed it before his comeback in Week 17 due to a foot injury.
Long opened the regular season of 2019 in good shape, but suffered a hip injury during training that preceded the game against the Minnesota Vikings on September 29. He was inactive for the game, but returned to the starting lineup against the Raiders in London in October. 6
After the defeat to the Raiders – a game in which Long played all 56 possible snaps in the attack – the Bears decided that it would be better in the attack without Long and promptly put the veteran in reserve for injury once again.
Long spent the 2020 season doing studio work for CBS.
ESPN’s Adam Teicher and Jeff Dickerson contributed to this report.