By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, May. 12 2008
He blew by Barron. Got barked at by Baker. And learned from Little.
By all accounts, rookie Chris Long soaked it all in like a 279-pound sponge.
"It's just all football," said Long, speaking of his first minicamp as a Ram.
"It's a lot of fun because, really, you don't have to worry about anything
else. Just eliminate everything else in your life and just focus on football."
For a weekend, at least, it didn't even seem like work for Long, the defensive
end from the University of Virginia chosen No. 2 overall in the draft by St.
Louis.
"That was my biggest anxiety," he said. "I was worried it was going to feel
like a job and not a game. But these guys are out here having fun, working hard
just like a college team would — it's just that guys are better."
But Long quickly showed he belonged. On Friday, the first day of the three-day,
full-squad minicamp at Rams Park, Long blew by offensive tackle
Alex Barron on
a pass rush. One Rams coach looked that way just in time to see Long get into
the backfield.
Long got through with such ease, the coach assumed that Long had beaten a
rookie free agent or street free agent. Nope. It was Barron, a former
first-round draft choice, a three-year NFL starter and a good pass blocker.
Long played down the sequence.
"Barron might beat me nine times out of 10," Long said. "That's a great tackle
in the NFL, and just to be able to compete with him is going to make me better.
So just to win one, I feel good about it. I feel like — hey — I'm moving in the
right direction."
On Saturday, with the team practicing outside for the only time over the rainy
weekend, Long incurred the wrath of veteran defensive line coach Brian Baker
during "team" drills. It was unclear from a distance why Baker was upset, but
whatever the reason for the yelling, Long took it in stride.
"Coach Baker's a great coach," Long said. "He's got 20-something-odd years of
experience. It's my job to be receptive to whatever he throws my way. You've
got to come in here with no ego, and no idea that you know what's going on."
Defensive coordinator
Jim Haslett runs a complex system, so Long — and all the
players for that matter — got a lot thrown at them over one weekend. The
veterans on the defensive line, particularly
Leonard Little, were more than
willing to help Long get his bearings. In theory, the quicker Long gets
acclimated, the better off the entire defense plays.
"I told him I'm willing to help him any way I can, any time he needed help,"
Little said. "He's athletic; he's very athletic. But as a rookie, you've got to
learn what you're doing, and that makes you play a lot faster on the field.
Right now, he's thinking about what his assignment is and stuff like that. Once
he gets that down, he should be fine."
Little, entering his 11th NFL season, is helping Long in a variety of ways,
including technique issues. So much of what goes into successful line play in
the NFL depends on footwork, hand placement, leverage and knowing how to make
moves and counter moves.
"For him, it's going to be little stuff," Little said. "He comes from a great
pedigree. We respect him as well as he shows respect for us."
Despite that pedigree as the son of Hall of Famer Howie Long, Long appears to
be taking what some might term the proper rookie approach of being seen but not
heard.
"What's funny about Chris is he just goes," coach
Scott Linehan said. "You
don't hear him talk a lot, which I like. He just goes 100 miles an hour, which
is nice. … He's all ears. He knows he's got a lot to learn."
Other than a few requests to "carry my helmet," Long hasn't been given the
rookie treatment by the vets. That figures to change in training camp, when he
will be asked to sing in front of the team. During the regular season, he
undoubtedly will be asked to bring the defensive linemen breakfast from time to
time.
"Don't give them any ideas," Long joked. "I have no idea what song I would
sing. I'm not a good singer, so I'm just hoping that they forget about that."
Uh, they won't forget. But when all is said and done, it won't be his singing
that matters. It will be his ability to get past offensive tackles.
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