Chris Long on Returning to Eagles in 2019: ‘I Was pretty Close’

While the Eagles passed on adding pass rush in the 2020 NFL Drat, apparently they were close to adding to it during the 2019 NFL Season.

Former Eagles defensive end Chris Long, speaking on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Trainia, was discussing how much time it would typically take him to get ready for the season. How much training camp, practice time and how many preseason games he needed to be ready for opening day.

"Some players are really special and they could just job out there and dominate," Long said on the podcast.  "I was never one of those guys."

"I would say ideally, I would play one preseason game for a half, then one preseason game for a quarter, then let's just go do it."

Long explained how one issue with a perfect preseason length is that players have different levels of experience, contract situations, team need, different position battles.He did acknowledge that he and most players need to have a runway in the form of training camp for 10-14 days in pads.

"When I was close to coming back this year (2019) in Philly...I don't think I needed that much time at all," Long stated.  I trained a little bit, but I was maybe two-and-a-half weeks on the field training and I felt great, like I could just run out the tunnel and play."

So just how close was Long to coming back to play for the Eagles?

"I was pretty close," Long admitted. "But I can't say why exactly, but it just didn't work out, but I will tell you that I was ready."

'When was Long supposed to come back and play for the Eagles during the 2019 season?

"I was never supposed to come back," Long said. "It just didn't work out, but it was earlier in the season."

When asked if he didn't come back because of him or the Eagles Long laughed and said: "let's just cut that part out, I'll tell you offline".

Long is currently the host of the Green Light Podcast where he features celebrity interviews, commentary, special guests, "one-of-kind" segments and more.