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Long has his big chance with the Chiefs
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star

Lance Long can’t afford bad days or sick days. Can’t deliver a lazy practice or run a sloppy route. Long has to be almost perfect. Otherwise, someone might notice that he doesn’t seem to belong as a Chiefs wide receiver.

“I’ve been through a few obstacles in my life in the football sense,” Long said this week. “You’ve just got to keep playing and keep going.”

The first thing to notice is Long’s size. He laughs when that comes up. He’s heard it before. He’s listed at 5 feet 11, but that’s about a 3-inch compliment. That doesn’t fit the prototype of an NFL receiver, but somehow that’s what Long is. Teammates say he’s smart. Coaches say he’s committed. Long says he’s not afraid of a little work.

“Blue-collar guy, you know?” Chiefs wide receiver Chris Chambers said. “He’s a small white guy who can catch. … He doesn’t make a lot of mental errors. That’s what you want. You want a guy who doesn’t make mistakes on the field.”

Long admits he’s not perfect. There was the time last year, when Chiefs coach Todd Haley was the offensive coordinator in Arizona. Long was a rookie free agent trying to cash in on a long shot. It was the beginning of training camp, and Long ran a read route and noticed that the middle of the field was open. He broke toward it. Only he says he messed up the read. Long says now that he was so concerned about making small mistakes that he made a big one. Haley wasn’t pleased, and he let the youngster know about it — loudly, as the coach often does.

“I really didn’t have any expectations for Lance and really tried to run him off,” Haley says now. “But as time went on, you could tell this guy wasn’t going away.”

Long spent last season on the Cardinals’ practice squad, waiting on his odds to improve. Not long after this season began, Arizona released him. Another team was interested. His old offensive coordinator wanted to take another look.

Long says he had no choice but to get tougher throughout his unusual journey to an NFL roster. Sitting in front of his stall in the Chiefs’ locker room, Long said that his coach at the Detroit-area high school he attended never told him he had a chance to play at a Division I college. He enrolled at Toledo anyway, but after a year he wanted a change of venue.

As if things weren’t difficult enough, Long walked on at Mississippi State. He could have gone to any school in the country, as long as playing wide receiver wasn’t part of the deal, but that never seemed like a good deal to Long.

“I love this game,” he says.

Now the Chiefs are trying to find out whether he offers more there than desire. They want to learn whether Long’s skills outweigh his shortcomings. Haley is giving Long the chance no one else has. The Chiefs have deactivated wide receiver Bobby Wade the last two games, just to take a close look at Long. The Chiefs know what the veteran Wade can do and the skills he offers. It’s Long’s turn in the slot. He’s at least getting his chances.

Long has been thrown to 20 times in three games, and he has 12 catches in that time. He’s still not perfect, either. He stayed in bounds when he wasn’t supposed to against Jacksonville, and he missed a block last week at Oakland. As usual, Haley let him hear about it.

“We’re trying to give him on-the-job experience,” Haley says.

Still, the team doesn’t yet know about Long, and the only way to examine him is in games. Is he just another long shot, or could he be the next Wes Welker, the undersized New England receiver who tied for the league lead in receptions in 2007.

Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel, who played with Welker in New England, says it’s unfair comparison this early in Long’s career. Long agrees, but he knows that nontraditional wide receivers such as Welker have helped others like him elicit looks from NFL coaches and personnel men. Haley says that’s all he’s offering. The rest is up to Long.

“Every day the guy made plays and the defense didn’t like him, and you take notice,” Haley said. “That’s the way guys make it, and there’s never going to be a day he can ever take off. But he’s quick, and he’s tough, and he goes a hundred miles an hour all the time. That’s what got my attention.

“This kid works, and he has some unique skills. We’re just trying to find out what we have.”

Long says that’s all he wants out of this.

“I don’t want to set limits for what I can do,” he says. “Really, I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything yet. Once we start winning, I can be proud of something.”

I sure hope he makes it. Right now he dosent seem any better than the rest, as far as catching the ball.
With all the attention going to wade and chambers the next four weeks he should get open. I want to see this so called speed in the open.

Right now all the receivers are going to have to step up.

I'll give him a big good luck for his team. Well, I still don't want to say bad words about him, so I hope they can win all of their games. I want to watch their games, so guys watch out!

I see that we have been fairly warned. Welcome to Chiefs Countyry!