FanHouse Jerramy Stevens

Tampa Bay has traded tight end Alex Smith to New England for an undisclosed draft pick in the 2010 draft. The Bucs had reportedly been looking to unload Smith ever since acquiring Kellen Winslow from the Browns at the end of February.

The Patriots weren't exactly bare at the tight end position before this move either. The Pats return Benjamin Watson and David Thomas, their two starters from last year, and signed former Jet Chris Baker to a free-agent deal.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers continued their busy offseason on Thursday afternoon by re-signing safety Jermaine Phillips and tight end Jerramy Stevens. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Phillips has spent his entire seven-year career in Tampa Bay, and is coming off an injury-shortened season in 2008 where he registered 59 tackles and three interceptions. He's going to be returning to a slightly different defense from the one Tampa fans have been accustomed to over the years, thanks to a new defensive coordinator (Jim Bates) and several new starters.

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

Following a disastrous end to the 2009 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have gone through some pretty significant changes. Gone are head coach Jon Gruden, general manager Bruce Allen and starting quarterback Jeff Garcia.

That's what happens when you haven't won a playoff game since 2002 and closed out your season on a four-game losing streak.

Two Seattle Times reporters have won one of journalism's most prestigious awards for documenting the dozens of crimes committed by Washington's 2001 Rose Bowl-winning team.

The reporters, Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry, were among the George Polk Award winners announced today. Armstrong and Perry wrote a four-part series that showed at least two dozen Washington players had been arrested, sometimes for violent felonies, while playing at Washington.

In anticipation of Cardinals-Steelers, FanHouse takes a look back at some forgotten storylines from past Super Bowls.

Much was made about Ben Roethlisberger's first half touchdown and Darrell Jackson's offensive pass interference -- which negated a touchdown -- in the aftermath of the Steelers victory over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. Those who follow the Zebra Report know that I refuse to ever claim the officials cost any team a game, however, there was one call in this game that cost the Seahawks a lot more than the above well-publicized calls.

It's playoff time! In what should be championship week, FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled in order to provide answers to your possible lineup dilemmas. If you need further assistance, please feel free to shoot us an email question.

I gave up on John Carlson after Week 12. He was fresh off back-to-back clunkers and besides I had the emerging Dustin Keller waiting in the wings. Fast forward to today and now Keller has hit the skids, while Carlson has gone off for 19 catches, 250 yards and a TD over the past three weeks.

Yes, playing the tight end field in fantasy football is all about catching the hot hand. And Carlson along with Dallas Clark and Tony Gonzalez qualify as hot hands and surefire bets this weekend. If you're looking to gamble a lit bit this weekend (not always highly advised for the playoffs), give Jeremy Shockey another chance...it's the Lions. Also, look to Jerramy Stevens against the Chargers who frequently get torched by tight ends.

The usual suspects Antonio Gates and Jason Witten draw a couple of tough matchups, but you have to trust your studs. Gates got a little more involved last weekend and Witten put up decent numbers, considering the swirling controversy. You drafted these guys high for a reason and it happens to be this weekend.

And now for the rest of the ranks...

1. Tony Gonzalez, MIA
2. John Carlson, NYJ
3. Dallas Clark, @ JAC
4. Jason Witten, BAL
5. Antonio Gates, @ TB

Value Machine checks out the overall perceived value of fantasy players. If you want to commit a fantasy felony, you'll sell high on the up arrow guys and buy low on the down arrow guys.

Hey, I'm with you. I want to scream today as I hear the name, "Lee Evans." He was in my active lineup on two different teams gathering a nice and plump goose-egg. What's funny about fantasy sports is how we end up hating guys about whom we normally wouldn't bat an eye, and most of the time it's not even their fault. Evans barely even got targeted last night because Trent Edwards was overly quick in checking down through his progressions. He was terrified to throw the ball downfield, which, I guess, is what throwing three picks early in the game will do to you.

Either way, I still don't want to give up on Evans. The Bills face the Chiefs, Niners, Dolphins, Jets, and Broncos for the rest of the fantasy season, and that's hardly a murderer's row of pass defenses. If the offensive line can get any sort of pass protection for Edwards -- and they should, considering the running game from last night should attract attention -- Evans will begin slipping through secondaries again.

Yesterday I called it the world's lamest cat fight, but apparently I was wrong because there's more. Earlier in the week, Joey Porter wondered why Matt Jones still hadn't been suspended after an arrest for cocaine possession a few months back, Jones then questioned why Porter was "even thinking about" him before wagering a guess: "maybe he likes other men and sits up and thinks about stuff."

Mr. Peezy hears your concerns, Matt, and he has something he'd like to say:

"Matt, I'm sorry to bring it up," Porter said to a group of reporters here at the Dolphins facility. "I wasn't trying to use you like that.

In a Wednesday conference call with Seattle Seahawks reporters in advance of Sunday's game in Dolphin Stadium, the NFL's sack leader brought up Jones' felony arrest for cocaine possession in discussing the unfairness of Porter's recent $20,000 fine for criticizing officials.

And because it was the Seahawks, Porter then spent the next 15 minutes ripping Jerramy Stevens for being soft. Actually, it sounds like Joey had a breakthrough in therapy, and Jones is the beneficiary. It's sorta like "My Name Is Earl" but with just one redneck.

But Peezy wasn't done; in fact, he started to ramble:

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

The Denver Broncos, formerly the league's running game savants, have become the league's preeminent passers. There should be plenty of passing room this weekend against the Swiss Chiefs, which means Tony Scheffler is an elite option at this position. Again. Get used to it.

- Jerramy Stevens may only be listed at the TE2 on his team's depth chart, but the Bucs loved getting him into single coverage on linebackers last week and taking advantage. As long as he shows he can hold onto the ball after gaining separation, they won't ignore him.

- Billy Miller is a quality play against the Niners at home. We know Drew Brees is gonna throw all day. While Miller is no Jeremy Shockey, he can help as a bye week replacement.

- Dustin Keller is coming off his first career TD. As the season moves along, his QB will become more comfortable with him and this will happen with more frequency.

1. Jason Witten, vs. Was
2. Tony Scheffler, @ KC
3. Kellen Winslow, @ Cin
4. Antonio Gates, @ Oak
5. Tony Gonzalez, vs. Den

For 46 minutes and 48 seconds, the Chicago Bears defense allowed only seven points, completely stifled the run, and took the ball away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers four times. Of course, they only held a 10 point lead and proceeded to stop guarding the pass ... which resulted in a 27-24 overtime loss in the 2008 home opener.

If you didn't watch the game and only looked at the stats, you'd be apt to blame this loss on the defense. While it was ridiculous to allow that last second drive to Brian Griese at home, it shouldn't have come down to that. Twice the Bears took the ball away deep in Tampa territory, and those two takeaways resulted in exactly three points. Kyle Orton also threw a pick-six on one of the worst throws I've ever seen an NFL quarterback make -- seriously, how the hell do you not see a dude who checks in at 6'5" standing right in front of your desired target?

Yes, it was a huge day through the air for Brian Griese. It has to be to garner over 400 yards passing. Of course, that was with only 6.1 yards per attempt (67 freaking passing attempts!).