FOXBORO - About the last thing anyone should expect to see - outside of a professional wrestling ring, that is - is a 6-foot-1, 308-pound individual completing back flips.

Ask the Patriots' Le Kevin Smith to try one, however, and he just might surprise you.

"That's something I've been doing since I was a little kid," the Patriots' reserve defensive lineman said last week. "We used to do it as a competition, just for fun. I've been doing flips for years now."

If Smith ever scores a touchdown in the NFL, he said he might be tempted to try one on the spot. It would certainly be one of the more unique celebrations ever seen in the league, but "unique" isn't out of the ordinary for the second-year veteran from Nebraska, who has fared well in this preseason.

For one thing, the native of Macon, Ga., has creative interests in drawing, painting and photography. Examples of his artwork hang in the halls of a hospital in his home town. "I grew up never taking lessons or anything like that," he said, "just a couple classes in high school where I grew up drawing and painting. It's just something that I like to do.

"I like to paint outdoor stuff," he said. "I just like to do detail. I don't mind doing a project that's going to take me a long time to finish because it's such detail, because that's what I like to get my mind away. You get lost in what you're doing."

Smith has had to put some of his art projects on the back burner for the past few weeks, because he's trying to craft a new direction for his football career.

Through three preseason games, last year's sixth-round pick with the unusual first name (pronounced luh-KEE-vun) has nine tackles (all unassisted) to rank fifth on the team, including one sack and one forced fumble. His best outing came against Tennessee with four tackles, the sack and two quarterback hits, and he added three more tackles against Carolina on Friday night.

No doubt, Smith has his hands full trying to crack a lineup that includes Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Jarvis Green and Mike Wright at the top of the depth chart. But he knows that every positive step he takes has the potential of earning him more playing time down the road.

"Coming from college and starting pretty much three years in a row, it was tough," he said of adapting to a reserve role in the pros. "But I do have an understanding of what they have here.

"I think it would have been a little bit naïve of me to think that I was going to come in and right off be out there starting without somebody suffering an injury," he said. "So I knew what I was coming into and I just wanted to show that I could be here long enough to hopefully learn the system to a certain level to actually earn playing time, not just be given it."

The Tennessee game was especially encouraging, he said, because it was his first extensive playing time with members of the first unit.

"It felt good," Smith said. "It felt really good to go out there with those guys. They're going to handle their part, so now it's up to the new guy on the front. Is he going to handle his? So I just wanted to make sure I was holding up my own end."

There's always competition for roster spots, even when a position group appears as secure as the Patriots' defensive line. Smith isn't necessarily in any danger of losing his job, but he knows that as a player with limited NFL experience - he was active for only five games last year and saw limited playing time in three, registering two tackles - every snap counts. "For anyone outside a starting role or not in a big contract, every rep in the preseason means everything," he said. "Whether you're starting or if you're the guy going in the last play of the fourth quarter, you want to put good film out there."

Fortunately, he is a member of one of the better defensive lines in the NFL, and its members aren't shy about sharing tips of offering instruction to those who aspire to becoming a contributor to their ranks.

"They make it really easy to come to work and to get along with," Smith said. "They're guys you can joke with while you're here and guys you're going to hang with when you're not. I'm trying to adapt to something I haven't had to deal with before, so them being so open with their information and their knowledge, that's what's helped me the most."

With more instruction and the continued help and support from his fellow D-linemen, who knows? Maybe Smith might once again be able to find the time to lose himself in his art instead of the playbook.

"Every now and then I get away," he said, "but I haven't done it a whole lot. I've got a lot of unfinished projects that I should be doing. It's just something that I like to do as a getaway."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com