April 29, 2010
NFL history says Dustin Long can still get his shot
Best of West for Friday, April 30
Bob West
The Port Arthur News
— Editor’s note: The following column from the Best of West collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on April 27, 2006.
Dating back to an offensive lineman from Orange Stark High School named Ox Emerson, who blocked for the Detroit Lions in the 1930s, nearly 80 players from Southeast Texas have played in the NFL. Some were stars, others were good, solid contributors to their teams and a few were role players and backups.
There have been quality running backs and explosive receivers. There have been top-notch cornerbacks and dominant defensive linemen. There have been linebackers and safeties, guards and tackles. There has been a center and even a kicker.
The Southeast Texas NFL connection also includes three head coaches, a couple of assistants, one of the game’s most respected trainers and a coach turned TV analyst. There was a player taken with the first pick in the draft, several Pro Bowlers and a dozen guys who have played for Super Bowl winners.
Despite the impressive lineup of past and present pros that can be assembled, a lineup that added Lincoln defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux and TJ tight end Kevin Everett over the weekend, there remains one glaring void on the Southeast Texas NFL roster.
There is no quarterback.
Quarterbacks from this area, for whatever reason, have seldom excelled, even at the college level. TJ’s Gary Hammond had one big year at QB for SMU, but went to the NFL as a receiver. West Brook’s James Brown had a decent career at Texas. TJ’s Todd Dodge (Texas) and Craig Stump (A&M) enjoyed moderate success. But there has never been a QB who generated any sort of NFL buzz.
And that brings us to Dustin Long. From the time he was a senior at PN-G, I’ve been saying Long was the best passer I’d seen in 40 years of watching high school football in Southeast Texas. I thought he would be the one to break through at the NFL level. After his remarkable, record-setting senior season at Sam Houston State, I was convinced of it.
The NFL, however, spoke over the weekend and said Long wasn’t worthy of even a seventh round draft pick. They said he wasn’t big enough and didn’t have a strong enough arm. Essentially they put him in the same category coming out of college as they put Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme, a couple of recent Super Bowl QBs who were also written off as not having the “measureables” it takes to play at the highest level.
Warner and Delhomme, of course, are just the latest on a lengthy list of QB mistakes NFL scouts have made. One of the game’s all-time greats, Johnny Unitas, didn’t get picked until the ninth round — the draft went 12 rounds in those days — and was cut by the Steelers without ever playing in a game.
More recently, New England’s Tom Brady was a sixth round afterthought of the New England Patriots. Brady, who now sports three Super Bowl rings, might never have gotten a chance had Drew Bledsoe not been injured during the 2001 season. But, when opportunity knocked, he was ready to answer.
So was Warner. An outstanding small college QB at Northern Iowa, he went to Green Bay’s camp as a free agent and was cut. Undaunted, he played for the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena League and later for Amsterdam in NFL Europe.
St. Louis saw enough to bring him to training camp in 1999. When starter Trent Green went down, Warner stepped up to lead the Rams to two Super Bowls, win two league MVP awards and shatter records right and left. He is still the top rated NFL passer of all-time.
Delhomme’s story is similar. He didn’t have the right look coming out of USL to win the quarterback beauty pageant, so he signed as a free agent with the Saints. He was cut and re-signed, cut and put on the practice squad and became a free agent again. He signed up in Carolina and took them to the Super Bowl.
Long should keep those guys in mind this week as he heads to Dallas to try and earn a free agent contract with the Cowboys. The hand he’s been dealt isn’t a good one, but the mountain he’s trying to climb has been scaled before.
One person who is convinced that Long is not only good enough to make an NFL roster, but lead an NFL team, is his recently retired coach at Sam Houston State, Ron Randleman.
“Dustin can play in that league,” insists Randleman. “He throws the ball so well, and when you look at the NFL not everybody does. It’s just a matter of him getting into an NFL camp and being able to hang around until he gets an opportunity.
“He may have to kick around a little bit, play in the Arena League, go to Europe. It’s strange how quarterback things work out. He might impress a coach in Dallas who winds up with another team and thinks he’s better than the QB on that team. There’s some luck. You have to be in the right place at the right time.”
Randleman said he was only mildly surprised that Long wasn’t drafted.
“Here’s the bottom line,” he said. “If Dustin were two inches taller and 10 pounds heavier he’d have been taken in the third or fourth round. He’d still be the same quarterback, but the NFL people are so much into numbers.
“And that stuff I hear about his arm strength really amazes me. I have never seen a throw he couldn’t make. He tries to complete passes, not throw the ball through people. NFL scouts often look for reasons why they can’t take a guy and wind up missing on a Tom Brady or a Kurt Warner.
“There is just so much about a quarterback you can’t really know until he’s on your team. Intangibles are so important at that position. How does a guy run your offense, how well does he see the field — some guys see more in a blink than others see in several seconds.
“Dustin’s intangibles are great. He’s a team guy. He gets the ball where it’s supposed to be. He wins games. I talked to him Monday and told him, ‘Dustin, you can play in that league. You don’t have to give super human effort when you get to Dallas. Just do what you have always done. You are good enough. Believe in yourself.”
Amen to that.
