Brian Kelly Should Play Ball

This was written a few days ago, but since the headline was "Is Ruud Ready?" and I already know the answer to that (it's "yes", by the way,) I didn't read it. But after hearing other people talk about it, I discovered the article has a couple smaller articles at the end of it that were interesting. Note to the St. Pete Times: You may want to consider not hiding small stories inside bigger articles. Or at least make the title of the smaller story bold?

Anyway, the first one is a small bit of speculation that Brian Kelly is unhappy with his contract and will not show up for the voluntary workouts this week in protest. That Kelly wants a new contract is not news (even Peter King mentions it in his latest piece about Mike Tomlin) and since he has two years remaining on his current deal makes it very unlikely that any progress will be made this year. Skipping voluntary stuff isn't a big deal; skipping training camp is, and if Kelly isn't at the Mouse House in July, we can assume Kelly is trying to pressure the Bucs into a new deal. Bruce Allen made a bold statement when his response to Keenan McCardell's holdout in 2004 was, essentially, "piss off". Holdouts will not be tolerated and don't expect a new contract with more than a year left on your old one.

Though the Bucs have a lot of bodies at corner, there's not a lot of proven talent there just yet. The team knows what they have in Torrie Cox and Phillip Buchanon, the latter a possible starter if Kelly should want to live dangerously. Carlos Hendricks is a second year practice squad player from Birmingham who spent time with the Bears (but no game experience.) Kenny Scott is a rookie free agent from Georgia Tech with great measurables who was, at one point considered a third rounder. He could be a huge steal someday, but to replace Brian Kelly right now? Chaz Williams is also a rookie free agent, but unlike Scott was never projected as anything but that. He timed out very slow and is not considered very physical or a good athlete. The Bucs drafted Marcus Hamilton in the seventh round this year and I thought he was a good pick for that slot. But, again, a late round rookie. Finally, Alan Zemaitis has a year in the Buccaneer system and was considered a perfect fit when he was drafted last year. Of course, he ended the season on injured reserve without having played a single snap, so the jury is still out.

And there you have it. Gruce took a pretty big leap of faith by releasing Juran Bolden a few weeks ago and cutting out a lot of experienced depth from the cornerback position, especially since he knew Kelly was going to start pouting this year despite being injured for most of 2006. Kelly should take note of how his compadre Ronde Barber handled a similar situation. Barber was cool and played nice and got a very friendly extension last year. And while Kelly may think he has the upper hand in this situation due to all the inexperienced rookies on the squad, he is nowhere near as beloved by the Tampa Bay community as Barber is and cannot leverage much fan support to his favor. Gruce and Kelly should just maintain the status quo this season while one young cornerback separates himself from the herd. Then next February a decision can be made as to whether the team has enough faith in that player to replace Kelly.