Reports: St. Louis Rams LT Jake Long Out for Season with Torn ACL

According to numerous reports from respected NFL media sources, St. Louis Rams left tackle Jake Long suffered a torn ACL in Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and will miss the rest of the season.

One would think that this is a potentially career-threatening injury for the 29-year-old Long. The 6-foot-7, 322-pounder suffered the same injury near the end of the 2013 season. It obviously affected the quality of his play this season, as Long visibly struggled to get much knee bend, and was not able to exert nearly as much force on defensive linemen as he had before the injury.

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Rookie Greg Robinson, the number two overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, took over for Long on Sunday and is expected to be the Rams’ left tackle going forward. The 22-year-old played the position at Auburn and was expected to eventually take over there with the Rams after getting his feet wet in the NFL as a guard. Now, he’ll be thrown into the fire, which in a way is both a curse and a blessing. He’ll be forced to quickly develop his pass blocking skills on the edge if he wants to protect quarterback Austin Davis. At the same time, it’s a great opportunity for Robinson to learn on the job and get experience at the position he’s actually expected to play long-term.

Curiously, the Rams are now 0-for-2 with players coming off ACL surgery. Quarterback Sam Bradford suffered a torn ACL in a preseason game this August, roughly 10 months after suffering the same injury in an October game against the Carolina Panthers. Now Long, who suffered his injury on December 22 of his last year, seems to have gone down with same injury in almost the same time frame as Bradford.

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