New Los Angeles Rams tight end Hunter Long ready to make an impact, show full skillset

While the Rams are a new team for Long, they have a familiar face on staff in Caley, who interviewed Long several times during the pre-draft process in 2021.

“We’ve talked a bunch. He’s coached a couple of other guys that I know, and they’ve all had great things to say about him,” Long said. “I’ve heard nothing but great things about him. And obviously, we’ve talked for probably a couple hours on Zoom calls through the draft process, so I have some familiarity with him.”

Long has one catch for eight yards in 16 games through his first two NFL seasons – and that catch came during his 2021 rookie season – but as is always the case with stats, context is important.

Upon his arrival in Miami, Long joined a tight end room that already included multiple experienced players in Mike Gesicki (a 2018 second-round pick by the Dolphins), Durham Smythe (2018 fourth-round pick by the Dolphins), Adam Shaheen (acquired by the Dolphins in a trade with the Bears during the summer of 2020, prior to his fourth NFL season) and Cethan Carter (signed a 3-year contract with the Dolphins in March 2021, entering what would be his fifth NFL season).

In 2022, the Dolphins changed coaching staffs, and Long had more of a blocking role. It wasn’t necessarily a reflection of his full skillset, just what he was asked to do and something he did in order to help the team be successful.

“I came into kind of a tricky situation. I came into a tight end room that already had five tight ends, and three established tight ends,” Long said. “As a rookie, my role was with a rookie role and kind of plugged in where I could and do I what could. This last year, I definitely carved out a bigger role for myself. Unfortunately, dealt with some injuries early on, and kind of picked up steam later in the season when I was able to get over those injuries. I was definitely in more of a blocking role this year, but that was not because I can’t run routes and catch the ball, you know? I’m as team-guy as they come, and whatever the team needs to do to win games and help the team be successful, I’m gonna do and do to the best of my ability. So that’s all I was asked to do, and I tried to excel at that, but that’s obviously not my whole game.”