FanHouse CliftonSmith

Carolina Panthers defensive back Dante Wesley has been suspended one game for a cheap shot on Buccaneers return man Clifton Smith, the NFL announced on Monday.

Of all the first-time members on the AFC and NFC Pro Bowl teams, Clifton Smith might be the most interesting, if for no other reason than he's a rookie that seemingly nobody wanted back in April. Smith went undrafted out of Fresno State, and apparently had free agent contract offers from only two teams, one of them being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

For the first seven weeks of the season, Smith found himself on Tampa Bay's practice squad, before being signed to the active roster prior to its week 8 game at Dallas. All he's done in the seven games since is turn into one of the NFL's most explosive kick returners.

Currently, he's tied for the second-best kickoff return average in the NFC at 27.3 yards per return, while his 15-yard average per punt return leads the conference. Only Roscoe Parrish in the AFC can claim a higher average in the NFL. For his efforts, he earned a spot on the NFC Pro Bowl roster as the return specialist, even though he thought the phone call informing him of his selection was a joke.
In his second NFL game, Smith returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown in a 30-27 win at Kansas City, and then took a punt back 70 yards against Detroit two weeks later.

Just goes to show that you never know where you're going to find impact talent.

The AFC and NFC Pro Bowlers were announced a short while ago, and why make some pointless comment you are sure not to laugh at when we can just give you the rosters instead? Here goes.

Last Sunday in Detroit, Buccaneers running back Cadillac Williams finally returned to the football field, much to the delight of head coach Jon Gruden. The initial returns were about what you would expect for a guy that hadn't played in over a year -- he carried the ball 16 times for 27 yards against the worst run defense in the league, mainly in late-game mop-up duty.

According to Stephen F. Holder of the St. Petersburg Times, the performance was still a positive step for the 26-year-old Williams because, well, he was actually on the field. And even better, he's expected to be the first back off the bench on Sunday to relieve starter Warrick Dunn during the Buccaneers huge NFC South tilt with New Orleans.

"I think a lot of the offensive guys are probably disappointed that we didn't throw it (against Detroit), but we wanted to give (Williams) repeated runs," coach Jon Gruden said. "And they were hard looks, too. (The Lions) knew we were running it. ... But he was able to get 12 or 13 carries in a 15-play span, and I think he got confidence back from that performance."

For only the fifth time in Tampa Bay's past 28 games, Cadillac Williams will be in uniform and an active member of the Buccaneers offense, when they take on the winless Detroit Lions. Jon Gruden has been waiting for this moment for weeks, it seems, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Earlier this week, Tampa Bay learned that its leading rusher, Earnest Graham, is going to miss the remainder of the season. Combine that with the release of Michael Bennett a few weeks ago -- when Williams was removed from the PUP list -- and the Buccaneers were down to only 33-year old Warrick Dunn, the recently signed Noah Herron, and fumble-prone Clifton Smith in their backfield.

Williams was listed as questionable this week with a hamstring injury.

It remains to be seen how effective he'll actually be, seeing as how he's hardly played the past two years, so it's nice that his first game back is against the worst rushing defense in the National Football League. So, at least he'll get to ease his way back into the grind.

(H/T PFT)

Buccaneers running back Earnest Graham is probably out for the season. Considering our fantasy season has the playoffs from Weeks 14-16 or 15-16 in most sane leagues, he's irrelevant for fantasy football purposes the rest of the way.

Moving forward, what can we expect from ...

... Warrick Dunn?
He was already a waiver option, but now we know more about the Graham injury. In the near future, simply put: Tons. Dunn was held to only 53 yards on the ground yesterday, but it was against the very stout Vikings interior defense. He did have 24 touches, which is a precursor of the workload he can expect for at least the next few games. Even at 33 years old and less than 190 pounds, Dunn is still averaging 4.4 yards per carry this season.

Even better news for Dunn owners, the Bucs are playing the Lions this week. You know, the worst run defense in the NFL, a.k.a. the team who was dismantled by Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams yesterday to the tune of three touchdowns and 250 yards on 29 carries.

Um, yeah, get Dunn active in Week 12.