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Bears Top Pick Kyle Long Will Miss Most Of Offseason Program

(CBS) Due to a technicality in NFL rules, Bears No. 1 overall draft pick Kyle Long will miss most of the team's offseason program.

According to NFL rules, any draft pick cannot take part in anything other than the rookie minicamp until after the school he attended has completed final exams.

Since Oregon uses a quarter system, final exams run through June 14. The Bears will hold their veteran minicamp from June 11-13, meaning Long will miss the entire minicamp.

As such, Long will miss 13 practices in total – 10 OTA sessions and three days of minicamp.

Long is expected to privately continue training with former Bears offensive line coach Tony Wise.

"I don't want to insult anybody, but guards are a dime-a-dozen," Wise told 670 The Score after the draft. "Guys with Kyle's height and his reach and his ability to change directions and run, those guys don't come along very often. I've seen film on some of these guys, and people are going to call me crazy, but I'd stack him up against (Luke Joeckel of Texas A&M and Eric Fisher of Central Michigan). The only thing they did, is they played left tackle their entire career."

 

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