Can Chris Long bounce back in 2015?

Can Chris Long bounce back in 2015?

By Tyler Pinyatello

http://isportsweb.com/2015/07/13/st-louis-rams-can-chris-long-bounce-back-in-2015/

The St. Louis Rams are known to have a great defensive line year in and year out, last season one of their key defensive linemen; Chris Long missed two-thirds of the season due to an ankle injury that required surgery. This was the first time in his pro career that he didn’t play the entire season. The Rams thought that Long would miss the whole season after he had surgery but he showed his grit by wanting to finish the season with playing with his teammates and show the young guys how to play thru injuries. He is the longest tenured Ram player on the team.

In the six games he played last season, he had five tackles and one sack, these numbers were extremely uncharacteristic for Long. For his career he has 51.5 sacks with 186 solo tackles with seven force fumbles and one defensive touchdown. He is known to dominate on the defensive line with his counter partner Robert Quinn playing strong side defensive end. They came up with the nickname thunderstorm with Long (being called white thunder) and Quinn (being called black lighting) because they cause havoc on the oppositions quarterbacks.

For the Rams defensive line to be successful this season they need Long, to be healthy and contribute right away starting in week one. Even though Quinn had 10.5 sacks last season I believe his production fell off with Long not being able to play. Teams were able to focus on just stopping Quinn and not having to worry about Long coming from the other side.

People didn’t get to really see what the Rams rookie defensive lineman Aaron Donald could do playing alongside Long the whole season. I think it would have kept the offensive line from doubling either Long, Quinn, or Donald which would leave them one on one with the offensive lineman and create more sack opportunities for the whole defensive line.

Chris Long’s motto is getting this defensive line going and for the Rams to have their motto running high this season they are going to need him to bounce back in a major way.