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Known for plays he hasn't made, the corner gets a bigger spotlight in Abraham's absence.
By RICK STROUD, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 8, 2002
LAKE BUENA VISTA -- He moved along a fence surrounding the practice field greeting fans like a politician in a receiving line, posing for pictures and signing autographs on footballs, hats and T-shirts.
But nobody wanted Brian Kelly's name on a piece of paper more than the Bucs this offseason.
In so many ways it made perfect sense.
Kelly won the starting right cornerback job three games into the 2001 season. At 26, his game is on the rise as a solid, if unspectacular pass defender and a reliable open-field tackler.
In so many other ways, it raised as many questions as eyebrows.
By re-signing Kelly, who had no interceptions in 13 starts last season, how did the Bucs expect him to replace Donnie Abraham, the team's career interception leader?
"We had Ronde (Barber) and then we could only afford to pay one more starter," general manager Rich McKay said. "That meant a lot to the decision. If Brian was the guy they could have, the coaches wanted him."
Abraham, whose 31 career interceptions are the most of any NFL player in the past six seasons, essentially was released and allowed to become a free agent when the Bucs failed to pay him a $500,000 roster bonus in March.
The Pro Bowl cornerback was scheduled to earn about $4-million this season while Kelly agreed to a six-year, $15-million deal just a week later.
"He knows he's got some naysayers out there and he wants to prove them wrong," Bucs defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin said of Kelly.
While fans have long memories, Kelly has the ability to forget the last play.
That's a good thing, considering that the former second-round draft pick from Southern Cal has been on the losing end of some of the memorable pass plays in recent team history: Ricky Proehl's touchdown catch in an 11-6 loss to the Rams in the NFC championship; Wayne Chrebet's TD catch of a halfback pass from the Jets' Curtis Martin in 2000; a third-and-22 reception by Johnnie Morton to seal a victory by the Lions at Raymond James Stadium.
"I mean, I guess there's an outlook out there on Brian Kelly and I've still got the whole NFC Championship Game over my shoulder," Kelly said. "But my job is to go out there and play solid football every Sunday and give my best to the team. That's what I focus on. I don't focus on trying to correct the past or change what happened then."
But Kelly, like all of his teammates, realizes the defense will have to make up for the turnovers it lost when Abraham signed with the Jets.
"Without question, it's definitely a loss there," Kelly said. "I mean, Donnie is a great player, the career interception holder on this team. So you've definitely got to fill that void there, but the thing you've got to watch is not trying to stretch. Donnie does what he does, Brian does what he does, Dwight (Smith) does what he does for a reason. You've got to play your role, fit into that system and if it comes, it comes."
This marks the fifth year in the Bucs system for 5-foot-11, 193-pound Kelly, whose eyes are said to decipher routes like a book he's already read. But both Kelly and coaches insist he hasn't had as much opportunity for interceptions as the rest of the Bcs secondary.
"I don't place too much into the interception thing," he said. "Love to have them. Love to come up with them. But if I walk off the field and have a good game but don't have an interception, I'm not holding my head down.
"The thing about interceptions is you can look at them in a lot of different ways. If the opportunities are there and you're not capitalizing on them, that's one thing. But when you're not in that situation, there's not much you can do about it. It's not like a sack. You can't force the ball to come to you."
While Kelly hasn't produced many interceptions, he has had impact on the defense.
Look no further than the season opener at Dallas a year ago, when Kelly's open-field tackle of Emmitt Smith near the goal line was the difference in Tampa Bay's 10-6 victory.
"That right there is a pretty good example of what I'm talking about," he said. "I mean, that's a tackle.
"That's not an interception from a corner, it's not a knockdown, it's a tackle and you've got to go out there and do that. You're paid to do that, it's what they're asking, especially on this defense.
"As a corner, I may get a receiver to reroute out there that allows John Lynch to come off the hash and pick the ball. That's not seen. That's not visible, so a lot of times that gets overlooked."