Past performance, failed trade, salary cap figure work against him.
By RICK STROUD
Published April 28, 2004
TAMPA - Kenyatta Walker is dogged by uncertainty each offseason about possibly being asked to switch tackle positions. Now he might have to change teams.
The Bucs' attempts to trade Walker before the draft for a fifth- or sixth-round pick met with no success. His salary cap figure is nearly $1.5-million next season, making him less than a bargain.
Besides, NFL teams know if Tampa Bay is unable to strike a deal for Walker, he is a prime candidate to be released after June 1, when his pro-rated bonus of nearly $2-million can be pushed to next year's salary cap.
By then, the Bucs will need to begin clearing room to sign their eight draft picks and possibly another free agent or two.
All Walker can do is work out and wait.
"I haven't heard anything," Walker said Tuesday. "I have no idea what's going to happen."
Here's a clue. After Walker led the team in penalty yardage last season, the Bucs drafted or signed eight offensive linemen, including five who have played tackle.
That list includes Panthers free agent Todd Steussie, who will take over at Walker's right tackle position. 49ers free agent Derrick Deese will start at left tackle, leaving backup Roman Oben as a swing player who can start at either tackle spot. Further help comes from guard Matt Stinchcomb, who played tackle before coming over from the Raiders.
"To be honest, nobody makes the football team out here if you're a lineman in shorts," offensive line coach Bill Muir said recently. "If they learn the system when we go to training camp, we can turn them loose. I expect to have a hell of a training camp. I think it's going to be very competitive and we'll let the chips fall where they may."
Walker likely will be the first to tumble. He has committed costly holding and personal foul penalties, and coach Jon Gruden always has questioned why the Bucs used a first- and second-round pick in the 2001 draft on the University of Florida tackle.
Furthermore, Gruden has cut ties with many of the players acquired under the regime of general manager Rich McKay, and Walker qualifies.
Walker landed in Gruden's doghouse from the start. He watched the Bucs lose their first regular-season game under Gruden from the sideline in street clothes, having been made inactive after a penalty-plagued preseason game.
But even Gruden would have to admit Walker has had his good moments. After switching from left to right tackle in 2002, Walker started all but three games in the Bucs' run to a Super Bowl title.
But in a few weeks, Walker might be added to the list of first-round picks who no longer get their mail in Tampa Bay.
"I think Michael Clayton is the first first-round draft choice we've had since Kenyatta Walker," Gruden said. "Those are premium picks, those are opportunities you get to acquire the rights to sometimes very unique people. We've missed out on a lot of opportunities, for the compensation to get me here and the trades that we've made to acquire the rights to a lot of other players. And a lot of the first-rounders we have selected are no longer playing."
NOTE: Keenan McCardell wants to make something clear: He did not skip three voluntary workouts this month to express disearlier satisfaction with his contract.
McCardell, 34, who led the Bucs in receiving and touchdowns last season, has asked the team for a contract extension. But Steve Carrick, the spokesman for agent Gary Uberstein, said the Bucs Pro Bowl receiver had committed to attend other league functions.
"It's all so blown out of proportion," Carrick said. "Keenan is happy to get another offensive receiver (in Clayton). We've been talking to (Bucs GM) Bruce Allen since he got here. I don't think there's anything substantial to report on negotiations or anything substantial about a rift."
McCardell, who will make $2.5-million next season and $2.75-million in 2005, earned a trip to the Pro Bowl last season after catching 84 passes for 1,174 yards and nine touchdowns. Carrick said McCardell attended a meeting for the NFL Player's Association in Hawaii and participated in the league's Quarterback Challenge during the Bucs' organized team activity.
