FanHouse AnthonySmith

The Green Bay Packers added some depth to their secondary on Friday, agreeing to terms with free agent safety Anthony Smith. A former 2006 third-round pick, Smith was a tremendous disappointment with the Steelers, and was not tendered a contract offer this offseason as a restricted free agent.

He's talented, sure, but he's the football equivalent of a million-dollar arm and a 10-cent head. His claim to fame as an NFL player is his foolish guarantee of a win against New England back in 2007, when the Patriots were on their way to an undefeated regular season.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

For the second time in four years, the Steelers hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, which means no matter what happens this offseason, Steelers fans have plenty of reasons to be happy. But with an easier 2009 schedule on the horizon and few big names hitting free agency, Steelers fans are ready to start thinking repeat, even if Mike Tomlin won't use that word.

The now 0-15 Lions have many believing that a winless season is not only possible, but probable. This is 0for08, FanHouse's eye on the Detroit Lions and their quest for a winless season.

Our unnamed resident FanHouse Packers fan is convinced that the Lions will avoid 0-16 thanks to the generosity of Green Bay's defense. I find that very hard to believe because Detroit hasn't won a game this season and are fresh off a 35-point home loss to the 8-7 Saints.

When you include the starting quarterback situation, the head coaching situation (or, if you're Rob Parker: the defensive coordinator/son-in-law situation), and the general apathy towards winning, well, oh-for-'08 appears eminently doable.

More proof: Detroit cornerback Travis Fisher either has very little confidence in the Lions' chances or he LOVES walking.

"If we win, man, I ain't catching the plane back home," Fisher said today. "I might walk. I'll walk back. I'll walk back to Detroit."

Asked jokingly whether the media can hold him to that, Fisher said, smiling: "That's a guarantee. I'll walk back to Detroit."

It's not an Anthony Smith-style guarantee, and certainly less eye-gouge-worthy than when ESPN employee Sean Salisbury's "promised" to walk naked from Bristol to DC should the 'Skins make the playoffs. But, if nothing else, it was a lighthearted moment for a team in desperate need of one. (Assuming you're not into the comedy stylings of Rob Parker, of course.)

It's probably worth mentioning that Fisher suffered a concussion against the Saints, although he sounds more lucid here than Marinelli has at any point this season.

It was almost a year ago that Anthony Smith, the then-second-year Steelers safety, uttered these words as the team prepared to face the Patriots: "Yeah, I can guarantee a win." Of course, he qualified by adding, "As long as we come out and do what we got to do," but not many people were interested in the entire quote since it was barely newsworthy.

At the time, I didn't put much stock in pregame guarantees, and I still don't. But there's no denying that the Patriots targeted Smith all afternoon, and he was directly responsible for two New England touchdown passes.

It wasn't just the Patriots who took advantage of Smith's over-aggressiveness, though; opponents regularly went after the free safety, and head coach Mike Tomlin had to bench him late in the year. As long as we're dredging up painful memories, it was Smith's replacement, Tyrone Carter, who David Garrard outran for a first down on a critical late-game fourth-down play during the AFC Wild Card matchup.

But what's done is done, so on and what not. The Steelers will travel to Foxboro this Sunday, and Smith is still talking. Sort of. Via the Indiana (Pa.) Gazette's Matthew Burglund:

It's preseason, so there's no reason to freak out too much over the Steelers loss to the Bills, but here's what jumped out to me from the game.

• Steelers fans have been noticing Santonio Holmes for two years but this is the year taht evberyone else will get to notice the third-year receiver. It's not hard to imagine Holmes going for 1,200+ yards with an outstanding yards per catch average. In two games this preseason he's looked unstoppable.

• It's hard not to get excited about the idea of James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley coming off the edges. For the second straight week, Pittsburgh generated a pretty solid pass rush just by lining up and beating people off the edge--something that hasn't been true in recent years.

On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a column by Gene Collier in which he lambasted Steelers safety Anthony Smith. Collier noted that Smith celebrated after a hard hit on teammate Hines Ward in practice, and he referred to Smith's behavior as "thuggery."

Smith's teammates and coaches are not pleased with Collier's choice of words. Coach Mike Tomlin condemned Collier's column, and Steelers safety Ryan Clark was even more critical:

"Not to bring race into it, but is it because he is black that these acts are called thuggery?" Clark said. "Because a man has tattoos or may play a certain way, it doesn't make him a thug."

Clark felt the need to preface his comments with, "not to bring race into it," but I don't have any problem with him bringing race into it. Although the dictionary definition of thug is simply "a cutthroat or ruffian; a hoodlum," the term has taken on a racial connotation, especially in sports, that is distasteful.

I don't know Gene Collier, but I do know he's one of the most respected writers in Pittsburgh, and I have no reason to think he's racist. But I do think that was a poor choice of words. Just because Smith doesn't always play the game the way Collier thinks he should, that doesn't make Smith a thug.

If you were looking for a sign that Anthony Smith is maturing and putting his knack for stupid plays behind him, yesterday was not a good sign. Smith is continuing to show that he seems to think rules are for everyone else. Yesterday he delivered a forearm that knocked Hines Ward to the ground during a 7-on-7 drill. As Jim Wexell explains, it didn't go over well:

Ward got up slowly as offensive coordinator Bruce Arians shouted an obscenity at Smith. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau walked over to talk to Smith, who was pulled from the field and sat on his helmet on the sideline. Smith did not appear to acknowledge LeBeau, and moments later, during team scrimmage, found himself running third team with undrafted rookie safety Roy Lewis.

Mike Tomlin has been the Steelers head coach for nearly 15 months, and one of the storylines that refuse to die is that the team will be going to the Cover-2 defense in the foreseeable future.

ProFootballTalk.com points out that Pittsburgh conducted a private workout with former Miami safety Kenny Phillips, and if the club uses their first-round pick on him it "might be a sign that coach Mike Tomlin is laying the foundation for a change from the 3-4 to the Tampa 2 defense, since solid safety play is critically important to the success of the attack that helped get Tomlin the job he now has."

Actually, it's a sign that the Steelers are a) worried about Ryan Clark's recovery from spleen surgery, or b) convinced that Anthony Smith isn't the long-term answer at free safety. It has absolutely nothing to do with an eventual move to the Cover-2. At least if you believe Tomlin:

"A lot of people like to trace my origins to Tampa, Fla., but I coached a little football in college prior to that," Tomlin said at the NFL owners meetings. "I've been involved with a 3-4 defense, a 4-3 defense. The longer you coach, there's many ways to skin it. You better skin it in a direction that lends itself to your guys being able to do what they do best."

It looks like Bengals' defensive end Justin Smith is headed for free agency. Cincinnati franchised their fourth-overall selection of the 2001 draft last season -- at a cost of $8.6 million -- but doesn't seem likely to do so again. For starters, that's a lot of money to devote to one position, particularly when the Bengals' defense has plenty of holes.

So now the question becomes: where will Smith sign this off-season? The Dayton Daily News' Carlos Holmes thinks the Steelers could be a potential destination:

Smith would draw some interest on the open market and the one team who could come calling is Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm told that Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau is a big fan of Smith and has always thought that he would be a better pass-rusher in a 3-4 defense which they run in Blitzburgh.

I'm not surprised LeBeau's a fan -- he drafted the guy -- but I'm pretty certain it still ain't happening. First, Smith is going to want to be paid like one of the league's best defensive ends. Second, the Steelers don't need a starter along the defensive line; they need depth.

It sounds like Anthony Smith has learned a lesson. No, not from guaranteeing a victory against the Patriots, but about knowing when to be aggressive and when to, you know, be a free safety. (By the way, Smith points out that he never "guaranteed" anything; instead, he said "...if we played the way we're capable of, we would win. I still feel the same way." That kinda got lost in the rush to bury the guy for flapping his gums.)

Either way, Smith's aggressiveness was never more exposed than against the Patriots. He was twice beaten deep on Tom Brady touchdown passes, and he now understands that football isn't just about running as fast as you can and knocking somebody's block off:

Smith admitted that his fierce pride to always make the big hit may have gotten the better of him.

"New England never runs to Randy Moss' side," Smith said. "On the first touchdown (a 63-yarder from Brady to Moss) they (faked a run) to his side. I came up for the run and we were in a Cover 2. I have to stay back."

This is certainly good news for the Steelers. After losing starter Ryan Clark midway through the year, there was talk that the team might need to draft a free safety this April because Smith had been so inconsistent. Hopefully, Clark will make a full recovery, but if he doesn't, Pittsburgh has to hope Smith means what he says.