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Bucs In A Bind At Cornerback

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2008

TAMPA - Just like that, cornerback has become an area of need for the Bucs this offseason. Brian Kelly is the reason. The longtime starting left corner quit on the Bucs on Feb. 15, buying his freedom for a reported $453,000.

None of this came as any great surprise. Anyone who has followed the Bucs the past few years has long known that Kelly was upset with his contract and badly wanted out of it.

The fact he paid nearly half a million dollars to get out of it shows how unhappy he really was. It also suggests there was more than just money at the heart of this move.

We've heard talk in recent days of a broken relationship, not between Kelly and his teammates and coaches but between Kelly and the Bucs hierarchy, one that never showed him the respect he believed he was due.

No, he never made it onto a Pro Bowl roster, but it's hard to argue that, before a string of lower-body injuries hit two years ago, Kelly wasn't a Pro Bowl-caliber player.

There are some who thought he was even better than Ronde Barber, a four-time Pro Bowl player. Kelly didn't want the comparisons. He wanted a contract that reflected his abilities and contributions. He never got it.

Even in retrospect it's hard to blame the Bucs for taking the stance they took. After all, the five-year extension Kelly agreed to in 2004 was lucrative at the time, paying him an average of $3.2 million per year.

The problem, and it was all Kelly's problem and not one the Bucs wanted to concern themselves with, was that the contract became outdated almost as soon as Kelly signed it.

Since 2004, salaries for cornerbacks have risen steadily and substantially, and corners are now the second-highest paid players on the field after quarterbacks.

But that's one of the risks you take when you sign a long-term deal, when security is one of your priorities. You run the risk of being underpaid at some point.

Kelly reached that point a few years ago, and his salary for the 2008 season was going to be more than three times less than the average of the top five players at his position.

Kelly may not even be one of the top 10 corners in the game anymore, but he obviously believes he's worth more and will eventually get more than the $3.2 million he was slated to make in 2008.

Someone will give it to him, but it won't be the Bucs. You get the feeling that even if the Bucs offered him the contract he wants he wouldn't take it. The relationship is that fractured.

Too bad. Kelly was, and probably still is, a darn good cornerback who fits perfectly into their Cover 2 scheme. In fact, he's just the kind the Bucs are suddenly on the lookout for.

INDOOR SOLUTIONS: Of the 31 workouts the Bucs scheduled for training camp last year, seven had to be moved or canceled because of weather. That figure probably won't drop this year, but the Bucs' frustration over it may.

Word is the Bucs and Disney officials are close to agreeing on a game plan that will allow the Bucs to make regular use of an on-site indoor facility that isn't a basketball court or hotel ball room.

Disney is building a new field house near the Wide World of Sports' Milk House that could become the haven the Bucs rush to when showers hit or the heat index rises past 110.

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