Ed Tait
Winnipeg Free Press

WINNIPEG -- Mike Kelly slips behind his new desk -- a relic that has served so many Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches before him that it just might be circa Fritzie Hanson -- and does a quick visual sweep of the office he hopes to call home for a long spell.

"These pieces of furniture have served their purposes and it's time to move on," Kelly said with a grin on Thursday, just after his first face-to-face visit with the local media since he was hired in December. "I mean, there are some heel marks where Cal (Murphy) used to put his feet on the desk right here. And there's that couch over there that I used to get yelled at when I sat on it.

"I feel I'm home here, but we need to get some new stuff."

It doesn't appear like that "new stuff" will immediately involve a quarterback change. Indeed, as much as many Bomber observers continue to bemoan the play of Kevin Glenn in '08 and want Kelly to jettison the team's starting pivot, the new boss continues to hint that with proper coaching, the 29-year- old could flash more of the promise of two years ago, when he was the East Division's Most Outstanding Player.

"The guy's been productive," Kelly said of Glenn. "People are ready to make a change, and I understand that. But I'm the one with the hand on the joystick right now and we're in no rush at this point. There's no reason to make a knee- jerk reaction.

"I've been looking at some NFL clubs and the decisions they've made over the years to get rid of a quarterback without having the answer already in place. It's hurt them. Or it's putting in a young quarterback that wasn't ready for the learning curve.

Glenn tossed a career-high and league-high 20 interceptions last year and was benched for a month before reclaiming his starting job. And as per usual when a team struggles to score points -- the Bombers were dead last in that category -- the QB becomes a lighting rod for criticism.

Kelly hasn't spoken yet to Glenn -- that will come next week -- and won't endorse him right now as the starter. But while watching game film of the last two seasons over the Christmas holidays, he did see some evidence as to why Glenn's play declined.

"There's a lot of inconsistencies over the last two years as to how the quarterback play was," Kelly said. "One time, whether it's Kevin or Ryan (Dinwiddie), there is a great deal of poise being shown. And other times, they looked like they were panicked and not quite sure what was happening in front of them.

"To me, that comes from not being sure, or maybe just having too much of a burden placed on them as to what their responsibilities were...

"Can these guys be more efficient, can they be better players with maybe some burden taken off them in terms of game-planning goes?

"I stood on the opposite sideline and saw Kevin have to call in for different personnel groups.

"Very few quarterbacks I've been with, regardless of the league or the level of play, have been able to handle those types of situations.

"I certainly don't want to stand here and condemn any coaching staff at any time for what their decisions were," Kelly continued. "They were making decisions they thought were best for the football club.

"But as an outsider looking in, I think maybe Kevin was burdened with something he wasn't either equipped to handle, didn't want to handle, and shouldn't have handled.

"Did that take away from his play? I think so. Can I make that better? We'll just have to see."

Courtesy: www.winnipegfreepress.com