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The Bucs' top draft pick starts by asking his coach about playbooks and opponents, not nightclubs.
By RICK STROUD
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2001
TAMPA -- It was a road he had traveled many times before, but something was different when Kenyatta Walker climbed behind the wheel Monday in Gainesville and thought about the journey he had taken from the University of Florida to Tampa Bay.
As he drove alone, he became more and more driven.
"He's a very serious guy," Bucs coach Tony Dungy said. "He comes in and asks about the playbook. "Are they going to be ready?' I told him, "Thursday, come back in.' So he asked, "Can I get one before I go back?' That scored some points with the coach.
"Then he starts talking about who is in our division. Who's in our new division (after realignment)? He said, "I know (Lions defensive end Robert) Porcher. I see we play New Orleans and Joe Johnson. I've heard of him.' He's a serious guy. He's serious about his craft. He's not coming in asking you to tell him about the housing or about the nightclubs. He asked about the playbook and who'll he'll be facing."
Walker, drafted by the Bucs 14th overall Saturday, made his first appearance at a Monday news conference at Raymond James -- the corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, not his new workplace on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.
The 6-foot-41/2, 313-pound Walker had been to the Tampa Bay area many times in the past as a frequent Christmas vacation guest at the home of former Gators teammate Darrell Jackson.
"When I came in this time, I said, "This is my home.' It was weird," Walker said. "I've come to Tampa a lot, but I never thought Tampa was where I would be the next couple of years. It was a very weird feeling that I'm a Buccaneer."
Perhaps not as weird as it seems to the Buccaneers, who never imagined they could land the left tackle after a 10-6 season and their third playoff appearance in four years. Scheduled to pick 21st, the Bucs figured Walker would be snapped up among the first 10 picks.
But the Cincinnati Bengals selected Missouri defensive end Justin Smith with the fourth overall pick, and many of the other teams with high picks had other needs. So the second-team All-American fell -- right into the Bucs' laps.
"From '97 on, you start thinking about Paul (Gruber) knowing he was going to retire sometime. And we've struggled with it," Dungy said. "How are you going to get that guy? Are you going to pay someone $5-million a year? Do you do what New Orleans did (in 1999) and package your whole draft to get a guy? Or is it going to take a year where you go 4-12 to get up that high? Realistically, you don't think you have a chance."
Walker said he was so angry at his predicament Saturday, he didn't realize the Bucs had swapped picks with the Buffalo Bills to take him until he was summoned from backstage at the draft in New York City.
"When we got past No. 13, I was like, "Whoa, where am I going?" he said. "But as soon as I got mad, I was on stage, and everything was fine."
Walker has a lot of work ahead of him.
For three seasons he played right tackle in the Gators' pass-happy offense. But the Bucs will move Walker to left tackle, where he will engage in weekly battles against the NFL's top speed rushers.
General manager Rich McKay said he does not expect Walker to have trouble making the transition because the Gators don't line up a tight end next to the right tackle.
"This is a guy who's been on that island and left alone," McKay said. "No back help -- no nothing -- and he's been there a lot."
Walker is athletic enough to handle the challenge.
"We always ask a lineman, "Take us through your college career and tell me what you weighed every year," McKay said. "And what you'll find with a lot of those guys is they came in weighing 218 and they gained. Kenyatta is a naturally big guy. The thing you like about that is in a few years he'll be a much stronger guy."
His athleticism will be put to use beginning Friday, when Walker participates in the Bucs' three-day minicamp. Walker will have his hands full with new defensive end Simeon Rice.
But Walker is already hearing another name a lot -- Paul Gruber.
"Right now I feel I just have to be myself," Walker said. "And maybe one day somebody will say, "That's another Kenyatta Walker."