Posts tagged JakeLong at FanHouse

Now this is why people stand in the hot sun all day at NFL training camps for!

Rookies Jake Long and Phillip Merling got into a bit of a tussle at Phins camp on Monday. Of course, these are two guys trying to make an impression on their new team ... but it was a bit surprising since they have been best buddies off the field.

''But he's my man off the field,'' said Merling, in an unexpectedly bashful tone. ``I think he was surprised I hit him, because everybody knows we're good buddies off the field. I just threw a quick 1-2 off of instinct, I guess.''

"He's got the talent, the toughness and the emotional stability to play left tackle at a high level, if he's transitioned over time ... I know he's a good athlete; I know he's left-handed and is used to playing the left side. With all those things, I think he could be inundated his first two seasons because I've seen tape when he goes up against defensive ends with NFL-type speed, and he struggles a little bit.

Jake doesn't have the rare feet of a Joe Thomas, who started at left tackle from Day 1."

"There's something wrong about the system," Goodell said Friday. "The money should go to people who perform."

"[Top overall pick Jake Long] doesn't have to play a down in the NFL and he already has his money," Goodell said during a question-and-answer period at the end of a weeklong sports symposium at the Chautauqua Institution. "Now, with the economics where they are, the consequences if you don't evaluate that player, you can lose a significant amount of money.

"And that money is not going to players that are performing. It's going to a player that never makes it in the NFL. And I think that's ridiculous."

He believes that just because Merling was 32nd and in years past that would've been the last pick of the first round but not this year because the Patriots forfeited their pick due to Spygate that won't have a bearing on getting him locked up. It doesn't hurt that Merling's agent is Jimmy Sexton, who happens to be the agent for coach Tony Sparano and team czar Bill Parcells. Come to think of it, he was the Nicktator's agent, too.

Smiley, who played the past two seasons in San Francisco with future Hall of Famer Larry Allen, doesn't think it'll be long before the rest of the NFL sees what he sees in Long.

"Even though we were in shorts, you can tell he's a special player," Smiley said. "He's going to be a perennial Pro Bowler."

Sparano said Long's biggest challenge, like most rookies, would be matching the speed of an NFL game. "You get in game situations and how that changes at our level is really something I think that will test him," Sparano said.

"Aw, man. Jake Long is a hard worker," Vernon Carey said. "He listens to the coaches. He listens to me. He's always trying to get better.

"He's one of those guys, he can come out here one day and do it bad and then the next day he picks it up right quick. I'm like, 'Wow. I wish I had it like that.' He's a guy who can pick up things real good. That's what you need at this level."

President/general manager Carl Peterson said the Chiefs have been in contact with Dorsey's agent, Joel Segal. "We've had conversations, and that's all I can say," Peterson said. ...

Segal declined comment. But given the particulars of McFadden's contract, Segal might not be content with a marginal raise over the fifth pick of last year's draft, offensive tackle Levi Brown.

The Miami Dolphins waived offensive lineman Drew Mormino after he failed a physical. Mormino, a sixth round pick last year, spent all of the 2007 season on Injured Reserve with a torn labrum.

One thing it means ... according to The Phinsider ... that #1 overall pick Jake Long will be able to wear jersey #77. Long wore that number at Michigan; Mormino was assigned that number with the Dolphins.

It also means that the Dolphins will have a very, very, very young offensive line. Long, a rookie, will be planted in as the left tackle. Fourth round pick Shawn Murphy could be the starting right guard. Next to him is center Samson Satele -- a second year player. Sixth round pick Donald Thomas could fight Murphy for a starting gig or, at least, figure in as a backup on the interior of the line. Second year player Ikechuku Ndukwe could factor in as well.

Expect Miami to take a gander at a veteran free agent before camp starts in July.