Tag Archives: Jacksonville Jaguars

Martin, Kelvin “K-Mart”

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Cards: Fleer 1990, Fleer 1995, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 2014, C/o Home
Sent: 1/28    Received: 2/7   (10 days)

Kelvin Martin played for Boston College from 1984-1987 and is considered one of the finest receivers to play for the school. He graduated as the school’s all-time leader in receptions (134), and TD catches (28), as well as holder of various punt return records.  A shifty receiver with deceptive speed, K-Mart was part of a strong triumvirate of BC players drafted in 1987. He’d go in the 4th round to the Dallas Cowboys, probably because of his height (5’9″) and frame (163).

After a wash of a rookie season- thanks in part to the players strike, K-Mart went back to work as the team’s primary punt returner, working his way into the lineup as a slot receiver. Beginning in 1988 he began to see an increased workload. As the team transitioned from Danny White to Troy Aikman, Martin saw little drop off, in fact, increasing from 39 to 59, his average yards per game, from 1988 to 1989. His best season came in 1990, as the team leaned on Kelvin heavily while Michael Irvin recovered from his 3rd straight injury plagued season. He’d finish as the team’s leading receiver in catches (64) and yards (732), however Josh and I joked about his bottom line- zero touchdowns. (I believe that his 100+ total catches spanning 4 seasons is an NFL record for futility, as he did not score a TD from week 12 of 1989 to week 4 of 1992.)  He’d pick back up punt returning, and lead the league in yardage (532) and TD returns (2) in 1992 while Michael Irvin and Alvin Harper were seeing more and more targets.

flr95 kmartin1993 was the dawn of a new era in free agency. Kelvin signed with the Seattle Seahawks, where he’d be paired opposite Brian Blades in the lineup. A value pick up, Kelvin finished with a career high 798 yards and 5 receiving touchdowns that year. He’d record respectable 681 yards the following season before he was left exposed in the 1995 Expansion Draft held for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers. Before Martin knew it, he selected with the 27th pick of the draft by the Jags. Oddly enough, the team cut him outright 2 weeks later- citing that his $800k price tag was too high to justify keeping him on the roster.

Enter the Philadelphia Eagles, who were burned by Martin, by denying the Eagles a playoff appearance in 1991, when Kelvin returned a punt 85 yards for a score. He’d sign with Philly and be one and done there before going back home to Dallas in 1996.  Kelvin scored a 60 yard TD against the Atlanta Falcons that season before hanging up the cleats.

I had never gotten Martin at training camp when the Cowboys were at St. Edwards back in the early 90s. It had almost appeared as though he preferred the anonymity rather than revel in the glory like guys such as Irvin did. Martin always reminded me of Houston Oilers slot man Curtis Duncan both in play, statistics, and overall class act. I was surprised at how fast I got a response from Kelvin and had seen that he averaged somewhere around 3 months per return. Kelvin lives in the Dallas area and has been involved in coaching at the college level.

G 139/66     Rec   367        Yds  4768     Avg  13.0      Td  15      Lg 60t    |
Kr  76      Yds 1453     Avg 19.1       Td 0       Lg 59  |
Pr  261     Yds  2567     Avg 9.8      Td  3     Lg 85t

 

Paup, Bryce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cards: Skybox 1995, Fleer 1996
Acquired: Canton Acquisition 2012

The Pack was aggressively going after the linebacker position to create some competition taking Tony Bennett in round 1 and Bobby Houston in round 3 before ultimately landing on a little known Northern Iowa Product, Bryce Paup with their 6th round pick in 1990.  He didn’t really get on the field his rookie season, but was a curious enough product at 6-5, 250 that the Packers suspected that he’d be worth giving a shot because of his versatility at linebacker and defensive end. Bryce ultimately got onto the field as a situational pass rusher in 1991 (- one of the first of the 90s to emerge,) and had 7.5 sacks and 3 FF in a misleading 7 games and 1 start. In his first game of the season, he tackled Eagles QB Randall Cunningham, effectively ending Randall’s more athletic days of scrambling fearlessly outside the pocket. As Paup began to really get a feel for playing the linebacker position at the pro level, he really gelled as a sack artist, and after the team’s switch to a 4-3 defense in 1994, he made 3 picks for 47 yards and a touchdown earning his first of 4 consecutive Pro Bowl berths. The Packers felt that Paup’s sack numbers were inflated because of the attention that  Reggie White and Tim Harris had gotten from the opposition and did not attempt to resign him. Bryce set out to prove them wrong.

The Buffalo Bills signed Paup to a free agent contract in 1995, and under defensive coordinator Wade Phillips in his 3-4 alignment, Bryce destroyed the NFL. Bryce led the NFL in sacks with 17.5, and was named Defensive Player of the Year that season, as he and Bruce Smith made a fearsome combo. He continued to play for the Bills through 1997 earning Pro Bowl berths in every season he was there, but a stinging groin injury from 1996, and his frustration over the ineptness of the offense, left bad blood between the team and Paup. Jacksonville, needing some outside pass rush help, signed Paup’s in 1998 to a monster contract that ranked second only to Junior Seau among linebackers.  He’d play two vastly underwhelming seasons there before finishing his career at  Minnesota in 2000.  Bryce currently lives in Wisconsin, where he’s begun a career in coaching football.

G/Gs  148/113    Tac  444    Sac 75    Fum 15     Int 6    Yds 55    Avg 9.2    Td 1   LG 30t

Cosby, Quan

  

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Cards: Score 2009, Upper Deck 2009, Press Pass 2009, Press Pass 2009SE, Donruss Rookies & Stars 2009, Upper Deck Star Rookies 2009, Playoff Prestige 2009, Pacific 2009.

Acquired: 2/16/2013, Longhorn Neighborhood Foundation Bowling Tournament, GMC Texas NFL Tour 2013. 3/15/2014 Longhorn Neighborhood Foundation Bowling Tournament.
See Also: Quan Cosby (2)

dor&s09 cosbypp09 cosbyQuan Cosby had some great seasons for the Longhorns as one of Colt McCoy‘s go to targets at receiver. He also had a habit showing up when it counted, making the winning TD grab in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl.  He finished his career at UT with 212 catches for 2,598 yards and 19 touchdowns.

At 5’9″, 196 many teams felt he was a bit undersized and he went undrafted. He quickly found a home with the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals offensive system was predicated around their superstars, Carson Palmer, Cedric Benson, and Chad OchoCinco. He was able to pac09 cosbypp09 cosbygrab a roster spot as a return man for the franchise while he honed his receiving skills buried on the depth chart. Over two seasons he grabbed 6 receptions for 71 yards. Cosby was very valuable at punt returner. In his rookie season Quan had 40 punt returns, (2nd in team history at the time, since surpassed,) for 474 yards. Both numbers led the NFL. In 2010 Cosby had 30 punt returns for 225 yards, but the team had been building up the receiver depth chart with guys like former Longhorn teammate Jordan Shipley. Quan was simply caught in a numbers game and was made a free agent after the season. He split the 2011 seasonudstar089 cosby poff09pres cosbywith 2 franchises: the Colts and the Broncos, where Denver put him back to work again as a punt returner. He signed with the Jaguars in 2012, where he was reunited with Shipley.

Again, Cosby was another player I got from the LNF Bowling tourney. I was very lucky to get him as he was walking out the door at the end of the day and he was kind enough to sign these two cards for me. Of note, Cosby is apparently a talented Baseball player, and spent a few years in the Angels farm system before joining the Longhorns in Austin.

sco09 cosbycosbyI decided on a whim to go a bit early and try to get him at the GMC Texas NFL tour that was going on in November of that year. The prize of the day was VY but I thought a nice consolation would be another Quan card. Why not? With little or no line for Cosby’s early start time, this allowed for him to chat with each and every fan. He was very accommodating and took a photo with me. Much to my surprise he also asked me about my thermal, and asked me where I had gotten it, telling me that he, “Liked my style.” He also gave me this pretty nice autographed photo to boot.

Cosby was also just penciled in by the Texas Longhorns to replace Rod Babers on their sideline reporting. Quan told me he had originally found out through Twitter because he had started receiving congratulations about the job. He said he was nervous because his interview was going to happen the day after the event we were currently at! I told him not to worry and that he’d do a great job. When I asked him how badly the Sooners were going to beat Texas, Quan said that he, “Had ultimate confidence in Case and that the Oklahoma team was young. We’d stand a good chance at winning.” I brushed it off as homerism, but you know what- he was right. I look forward to seeing Quan at future events around town now that I have restocked on his cards.

Overall, the GMC event was fairly well run. I did get the autograph of every player that attended that I wanted and to boot, the quality of the photographs were outstanding and on good Kodak photo paper.

I went to the 2014 Longhorn Bowling Tournament, hoping to – well… sneak in, utilizing one of my contacts from the 2013 event, but unfortunately he wasn’t there, so I felt my time there was inappropriately spent. On the way out I decided to spam Quan with a bunch of cards. After patiently waiting for him, he signed all my cards, and told me he hadn’t seen many of them before. He also broadly smiled when I told him he was right about the Longhorns beating Oklahoma.