It's official.
Choosing Jake Long over Matt Ryan as the number-one overall pick back in the 2008 NFL draft was a bad choice.
Jake Long has chosen to be a St. Louis Ram over a Miami Dolphin, signing a four-year, $34 million contract (with incentives that could push it to $36 million) with St. Louis on Sunday evening.
Long had been negotiating with the Rams from the beginning of free agency but at one point seemed as if he wasn't sure if was going to play for Jeff Fisher or return to the team that drafted him.
Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito took to Twitter and began a short-lived campaign to keep Long in Miami (Incognito even used the clever #bringjakehome hashtag that apparently wasn't nearly clever enough).
But a strategic hashtag and a zillion retweets from Dolphins fans was trumped by a big payday and Long falling in love with the Rams' vision and other great things they had to say:
"It was a tough decision," Long told the Post-Dispatch. "I came in for a visit and coach Fisher and Kevin Demoff and Les Snead were amazing. I just fell in love with their vision and the entire organization. And all the great things they had to say about Mr. (Stan) Kroenke and the way they go about football."
Now it looks like the Dolphins will have to plug Jonathan Martin into the left tackle spot, which might work out or might be a fiery train wreck that crashes into a gas station where a nitroglycerine truck was fueling up and the driver accidentally spilled some gas and then lit a cigarette.
They might also spend yet another first round pick on yet another offensive lineman, because smart-sound football-drafting yadayadayadafartnoise.
Whatever they do, they better do it right. Because while everyone was throwing a party with champagne and strippers over the signing of Mike Wallace last week, the offensive line suddenly has a gaping maw of a hole.
It's going to be pretty tough for Mike Wallace to score all those touchdowns when Ryan Tannehill is throwing the football with piles of linebackers and defensive ends lying on top of him.
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