You have to give it to him. I mean, the Buccaneers rarely make a splash in the trade market, and they went out and got him anyway. Questions, black marks, and red flags aside, the Buccaneers took a chance.

And Kellen Winslow Jr. rewarded them, handsomely.

Out of the headlines and into the stat book, Winslow was a bright spot on a struggling offense in an otherwise abysmal season in Tampa Bay. And much like a great running attack opens the passing game, so does one capable receiver free-up another.

Imagine what Winslow could have done with a little help.

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For a cold-weather Super Bowl, the verdict is still out. The debate will rage until January, 2014, when weathermen in the New York/New Jersey area will experience the most pressure-packed predictions of their careers, and Mother Nature will take center stage.

Tampa Bay’s eggs are now in 2015’s basket.

Of the 44 NFL Championship games played, Miami (10) and New Orleans (9) have hosted the most. Southern California has claimed ten: Two in Los Angeles, three in San Diego and five at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Sites in Texas, Arizona and Michigan, among others, have hosted 11. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay has hosted four.

Buccaneers Co-Chairman Bryan Glazer believes the city has a good chance of winning the vote for the next Super Bowl location. Despite the economic and entertainment issues to consider, Tampa Bay is quietly rich in Super Bowl history when it comes to the game itself.

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If he never got injured, think of where he’d be. If his knees held up, imagine the conversations we’d be having.

As expected, Cadillac Williams accepted the Buccaneers’ one-year tender early this week to remain with the team. This, after completing his first injury-free campaign in 2009. After two patellar tendons and an unlikely comeback, Williams looks to be back on the track he set for himself when he won Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2005. When he set an NFL rookie record with 434 rushing yards in his first three games. When he became the first rookie to rush for 100 yards in each of his first three games. When his shoes and gloves went to the Hall of Fame.

Oh, the expectations.

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Numbers don’t lie.

Take rookie wide receiver Mike Williams, for instance, and the numbers 49, 746 and six. Those represent his catches, yards and touchdowns respectively in his senior season. And then there’s the number seven. That’s how many games it took him to garner those stats.

And there’s the number one, which represents how many times he was suspended for academic dishonesty and the number of times he quit the Syracuse football team. The one thing numbers can't do is measure is the size of the question marks surrounding the talented, but troubled receiver.

So, what prompted the Buccaneers to draft Williams? It’s simple. Value.

Before the draft, scouts anointed Williams a first- or second-round talent. And when you can get that kind of talent in the fourth round where the Bucs took him, that’s value. When you can get a top-five receiver with the 14th receiver taken off the board, that’s a steal, and it’s a risk worth taking.

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If I asked you who had the lowest ERA of any starting pitcher in baseball, you could likely come back with five or six good guesses. If you said Tim Lincecum or Francisco Liriano, I’d say great guess, but no. If you countered with Andy Pettitte or Adam Wainwright, I’d applaud, and say try again. Even if you said Rockies standout Ubaldo Jiminez, I’d say close, but no cigar.

If you said Mike Pelfrey, with his stingy 0.69 ERA, I’d pronounce you a superfan.

It’s Pelfrey.

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It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. You didn’t need to be an expert or a guru. The Buccaneers defensive line, formerly among the weakest positions on the team, has been dreadful. Terrible. Awful. Elderly, and at times, embarrassing.

All of a sudden, they’re young. They’re fast and forceful, strong and versatile, and they’re poised to anchor a defense in desperate need of stability and leadership. A unit that finished 27th in total defense last season. A once feared defense, among the league’s best year after year for most of the decade, that sacked the quarterback just 28 times in 2009, among the league’s worst, and finished dead last against the run, allowing over 152 yards per game.

Help comes in the form of rookie defensive tackles Gerald McCoy and Brian Price, both expected to make immediate contributions. Hope surfaces in Maurice Evans, a second-year defensive end from Penn State who the Buccaneers stole from the Giants’ practice squad. Meanwhile, the leftovers from the 2009 campaign provide a blend of youth and experience the Buccaneer defense hasn’t seen since the late 90s.

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There’s a funny thing about opportunities. They’re never missed, and they’re never lost. Like when the Ravens traded third- and fourth-round picks for Anquan Boldin. Or, when the Jets parted with a paltry fifth-round selection for Santonio Holmes. And that time the Dolphins swapped two second-rounders for Brandon Marshall.

Opportunities are never missed, they’re just taken by others.

While I credit the Buccaneer front office for sticking to their philosophy regarding veteran players on the trading block, I’d feel a bit more confident if the plan was more complex than not getting involved at all.

But it’s not too late.

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A cashier at Publix says they didn’t do enough in free agency. A bartender at Applebee’s waits for the draft. A guy at Panera Bread, who always talks to me about football ten minutes longer than I’d like him to, thinks trading away draft picks for proven talent is a foolproof scheme.

If it were your team, what would you do? If you had to ink the checks, how would you spend?

From the recliner, the answer is easy: Whatever it takes to win. But there’s more to it than that.

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In this third and final installment of examining available free agent safeties, let’s look at arguably two of the best safeties available in free agency, the Bears’ Danieal Manning and the Colts’ Antoine Bethea. Both are free safeties, meaning Tanard Jackson would likely have to move to strong safety unless either Manning or Bethea is willing to make the move.

Manning has played an intricate part in the Bears’ success on defense in recent years. Manning played in Super Bowl XLI in his rookie season, a game which the Bears lost to the Colts. In 2009, he recorded a career-high 70 solo tackles along with a sack, one interception while forcing two fumbles and recovering three.

At age 27, the 5-foot-11, 201-pound safety led a secondary unit that was ranked 13th against the pass in ’09, and his 4.48 speed allows him to keep up with most No.3 receivers in man coverage. Manning has played a key role in the Bears’ success on defense in the latter half of the decade, and is likely entering the prime of his career.

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In this second installment of examining available free agent safeties, let’s look at how these two strong safeties would fit into the Buccaneers’ secondary. The Saints’ Roman Harper and the Texans' Bernard Pollard.

As we’ve discussed, strong safety is the weaker of the Bucs' two safety spots. While Tanard Jackson is versatile enough to play both safety positions, the Bucs likely want to keep the young star happy at free safety, so strong safety would be a priority.

Take recent Super Bowl champion Roman Harper, for instance. Harper recorded 81 solo tackles in 2009, second on the team and a career high. Though he did not record an interception, he spent most of his time helping free up teammate Darren Sharper for one of his league leading nine picks.

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In this first of three looks at free agent safeties this offseason, the focus is on a couple of teammates from Green Bay. Strong safety Atari Bigby and free safety Nick Collins were key players on the Packers’ 2nd-ranked defense (5th against the pass) in 2009.

Both are currently unrestricted free agents, meaning they can sign with any team they like when free agency opens on the evening of February 26. However, if no collective bargaining agreement is reached by the March 5 deadline, which is likely, both will become restricted free agents under the uncapped system, meaning the Packers will have a chance to match any offer from another team and could receive draft choice compensation if the player is not retained.

Regardless of their free agent status, both would be solid solutions for a Bucs secondary that struggled often in ’09.

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When head coach Raheem Morris took over as defensive coordinator in Week 12, he inherited the 26th-ranked defense and a secondary among the worst in the league in allowing plays of 40-plus yards.

Despite their early season struggles, the Bucs’ defense finished among the top ten in the NFL against the pass. After Morris took over, the Bucs did not allow a 300-yard passer, allowing just six touchdowns through the air in as many games. Opposing quarterbacks averaged 204 passing yards per game on Morris’s watch, and eventual Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees threw for just 253 yards and one touchdown as the Bucs defeated the Saints in New Orleans in Week 16.

Still, with free agency . . .

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The worst time of year is upon us. After Super Sunday has come and gone, don’t expect any excitement for the rest of the month in the sporting world. The NBA’s seemingly pointless regular season will seem longer than ever. Hockey will continue to be hockey, March Madness won’t quite be ready and most of us will be left wondering why NASCAR stories are printed with the sports instead of in the automotive section.

Thank goodness for free agency, where NFL owners get to play real life fantasy football leading up to April’s draft.

The Buccaneers have glaring weaknesses on their depth chart, and while most of Tampa Bay debates whether or not the looming uncapped season will encourage or discourage ownership from spending money, only the Glazers truly know.

However, should they open their checkbooks and dive into the free agent pool, worthy candidates are available to address one of the Bucs’ greatest weaknesses, the defensive line.

It’s important, with a young head coach and youth scattered all over the offensive side of the ball, to not only strengthen the defense, but to get it younger as well. And there are four free agents currently available that the Bucs should be seriously looking at, all under the age of 30.

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I’ll shoot you straight. This will be one of the most boring articles of mine you will ever read. It will not be creative. There will be little comedy and few parodies. There will, however, be critical information to understanding free agency in the National Football League and why 2010 is a pivotal year not only for free agents, but for the future of the NFL.

Some of the words being thrown around are scary, particularly the words "uncapped" and "lockout". Though we gather round the television on Sundays to watch grown men play a physical game, the NFL is still a business. The deadline to reach a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the NFL is March 5. (You may have heard the NFLPA also referred to as the union or the players in other media, which is also correct. The NFL, the league and the owners are also synonymous.)

If an agreement is not reached by March 5, the most notable result is an uncapped year in 2010, which means there will be no cap or floor as to how much teams can pay players and personnel. This is the system Major League Baseball employs, which is why there is controversy over the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox buying up all the great talent and leaving teams like the Pirates and Reds left to battle mediocrity both on the field and at the ATM. More importantly, an uncapped year in 2010 will dramatically affect free agency and could change the direction of the NFL.

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"Catch me if you can," he said. "Catch me if you can and hold on, if you can." The football speaks loudly, taunting Buccaneer receivers while hanging up in the air only to fall to the turf, killing play after play after drive after game.

If it’s broke, fix it. And I don’t mean bring in Keyshawn Johnson, although he did help deliver a Super Bowl. I don’t mean entertain Kellen Winslow. While he’s been a tremendous asset, the tight end should not, under any circumstances, be a team’s leading receiver. I mean scour the earth on a quest for the greatest receivers in all the land. Those who are worthy of big paychecks and a No. 1 slot. Those who are available.

Those who are like Anquan Boldin.

The Cardinals’ receiver will earn $3 million in 2010, the final year of his contract. In 2011 he will be a free agent, so he will likely be on the trading block this year so the Cards can guarantee something in return. The three-time Pro Bowler has requested trades in the past, unhappy with, amongst other things, playing second fiddle to Larry Fitzgerald.

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If you don’t like statistics, look away. I hear there’s a great article on draft failures posted below. If you’re a wishful thinker, go make a sandwich. This article is not for you. If you always look at the bright side and find the positives, skip to the special teams statistics and get on with your day.

Insert cliche here: The stats never lie. Enough with the postseason report cards. Let’s look at where the Buccaneers rank in the NFL in some major categories.

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The book is closed on the 2009 season, and most would like to forget it was ever written. It will not be a bestseller. It will not be a classic. It will not win any awards and Raheem Morris will not be signing autographs at your local Barnes & Noble any time soon.

So, where do these authors go from here?

Morris will be retained for 2010, but there will likely be some shakeups throughout the coaching ranks. With those decisions looming, Morris remains focused on his offseason priorities: Developing quarterback Josh Freeman and building through the NFL Draft.

"You have to say that number five is the biggest priority," Morris said, "making sure everything works around him because when it works around him, we were able to be successful at the end of the season there. We have ten big time draft picks coming up. You never know what you can do in the draft. Maybe we’ll find another Sammie Stroughter. That has to be a priority there."

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The team has seen better days. The franchise, better seasons. The fans, better games. With consecutive wins on the road the past two weeks, the Buccaneers will close the 2009 campaign giving fans something to hang on to. A couple of victories, well-played, well-coached games in hostile environments and better play from the defense and the young stars.

The Draft has never really been the Buccaneers’ thing. Just ask Dexter Jackson and Gaines Adams. However, in recent years the Bucs have had increasing success on draft day, especially in later rounds with players like Quincy Black (3rd round), Geno Hayes (6th round) and Tanard Jackson (4th round).

In 2009, rookie production was at an all-time high with players like defensive tackle Roy Miller (3rd round), wide receiver Sammie Stroughter (7th round) and, of course, first-round selection and franchise quarterback Josh Freeman.

"They say the second year is always the tell-tale year for a draft class," head coach Raheem Morris said. "That’s when they make the most improvement or the biggest jumps. But for the most part, you’d have to say it was pretty productive."

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There’s a bounce in their step. There’s a swagger that hasn’t been there since Week 13 of last season. There’s an optimism radiating from One Buc Place that can be seen for miles.

These guys might be on to something.

Do they have this game figured out? No. Will this cute little two-game win streak turn into a decade of dominance? Probably not. They are, however on the right track to settling Tampa Bay’s identity crisis that started when Monte Kiffin left for Tennessee. Since he and Derrick Brooks walked out the door, the defense, the franchise and the city haven’t been the same. Now, it looks like we’re getting a glimpse of what the Buccaneers will look like in the coming years.

"I think it’s a different team now," head coach Raheem Morris said. "I think it’s a different bunch of guys. I think it’s guys that have grown up a little bit. This season will mature you pretty fast, both coaches and players."

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Exactly when do you think it happened? I mean, it’s been a rough first year as a head coach for Raheem Morris, so whispers of a coaching change are eminent. It’s been musical coordinators, lopsided losses and disappointment. It’s been close games, missed opportunities and frustration.

Now, it’s a two-game winning streak, a win on the west coast, a division win against an NFL juggernaut, and a Buccaneer team that just might be figuring out how to play football, and Morris’s seat is hotter than ever.

When I hear the name Bill Cowher, a lot comes to mind. A tough, hard-nosed, old school coach. Super Bowl champion. His way or the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Hmm, sounds a lot like a guy the Bucs fired last season. You know, the one who the players didn’t enjoy playing for and wanted too much control, so he got booted to the Monday Night Football booth. You know the guy.

Now, everyone wants Cowher, the suddenly eligible bachelor on the coaching front, to swoop down to Tampa and scoop up a franchise, lifting them heroically back to the playoffs. And it’s this sort of myopic, knee-jerk attitude that got the Bucs in in this situation in the first place.

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Leave it up to a guy like Kellen Winslow. After all, he has a reputation for being a loudmouth. He’s publicly criticized coaches and teammates. He’s violated terms of his contract by riding a motorcycle, which he wrecked in 2005, causing him to miss significant time.

And he’s found a way to leave all his baggage in Cleveland.

Winslow set the Buccaneer single-season record for catches by a tight end with his 68th grab of the year in a win over Seattle on Sunday. His 68 catches and five touchdowns both lead the team, and his 752 receiving yards are not only a team-high, but second in team history at the position.

And he’s managed to do it without saying a word, without causing a scene and without slowing down. A far cry from the player he was in Cleveland and while at the University of Miami.

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Here are your five finalists. Vote on the best caption and the winner will be introduced at the end of the week.

Statistics rarely shock me. After all, they’re just numbers. It’s the NFL, and any team can win on any given Sunday. So, when I learned that the Buccaneers are 3-26 in team history when traveling to the west coast, I wasn’t too surprised.

Historical perspective can often cloud future judgement; however, I don’t think the stats lie this time. And that’s because this Sunday's game is in Seattle, arguably the most difficult stadium for opposing teams to play in.

Tucked comfortably up in the northwest, 800 miles away from the nearest NFL city, the cold, drizzly confines of Qwest Field amplifies crowd noise because of it’s metal bleachers in the end zone and the steep overhangs redirecting noise onto the field before it can escape into the rainy Seattle sky. Opposing teams commit false start penalties on average almost three times each game, the highest average in the league. Since 2005, a season in which the visiting Giants committed 11 false starts in one game, visiting teams have tallied 92 false starts, 12 more than anyone in the league.

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With the draft so far away, it’s all speculation. The mock drafts across the internet include juniors who still may return to school for their senior seasons. The draft order is not yet set. Teams’ needs may change after free agency in a potentially uncapped year.

Still, Tampa Bay’s love affair with Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is burning red hot.

But, let us remember the 2007 draft, when wide receiver Calvin Johnson was snatched out from under Bucco Bruce’s nose by the Lions. All the draft boards had Johnson either falling to the Bucs at No. 4 overall or the Bucs trading up to get him.

Today, Johnson is still a Lion and a dynamic NFL receiver. Gaines Adams, who the Bucs took with that No. 4 pick, is in Chicago, and all the Bucs have to show for it is a 2nd round pick.

So, how do we avoid repeating history? Have a plan B.

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Ever since his dominating performance in the Big 12 championship game against Texas, Buccaneer fans have been salivating over Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. The Bucs are practically guaranteed a top-five pick in the 2010 draft, and defensive tackle had been a glaring weakness on an underachieving defense.

ESPN's NFL Draft expert Todd McShay released his latest mock draft (below) this morning, likely to the delight of fans in Tampa Bay.

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Here’s one you may have heard before. A 1-11 team walks into a bar and says, "Hey, 6-6 team still in the playoff hunt. Yeah, you. Nobody thinks we have a shot at beating you, but we’re not gonna lie down. We’re still gonna give it our best shot."

The 6-6 team laughs, shrugs and says, "Yeah, we’ll believe that when we see it . . . hey, wait, what just happened?" And just like that, 60 game-clock minutes later, the 1-11 team picks up their second win despite being on the wrong end of everyone’s stone-cold, lead-pipe lock prediction for the week, and the 6-6 team’s chances to make the playoffs are practically destroyed. Joke’s on you.

Sound familiar? That’s what happened Thursday night when the Browns took down the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers. Likewise, that’s what the Buccaneers have a chance to do when they host the 6-6 Jets on Sunday afternoon, and there are two keys to pulling off such an upset, one on each side of the ball.

Offensively: Stop the Jets’ blitz. The Jets have the top pass defense in the NFL and have recorded 24 sacks, largely due to the blitz-happy Rex Ryan defensive scheme.

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It’s how we know what to get our families for the holidays. It’s why the company we keep is an intricate part of who we are. It’s why some people are born leaders and it’s why human nature leads us to hang around the people who bring out the best in us.

To truly know someone’s strengths and weaknesses and how to best utilize them in a team atmosphere such as the National Football League is as important a part of coaching as any. The gameplan means nothing if coaches cannot utilize the strengths of their varied personnel to execute it.

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams: A lot of things come to mind, don’t they. Auburn University, Ronnie Brown, Rookie of the Year. Gloves in the Hall of Fame, injury prone, patellar tendon. The number 24, a big black Escalade, Jon Gruden. Late-game heroics, another patellar tendon, and that time he broke a 71-yard touchdown run against the Vikings in his first professional game to clinch a Buccaneer win with under two minutes left in the fourth quarter.

There was a time, before the two knee surgeries and Earnest Graham and Derrick Ward, when Cadillac’s name conjured up much different images than it does these days. Back in the day, he used to get better as the game went on. Now, he’s trapped in a three-back-attack that seems more like a Pop Warner timeshare: Everyone will get some carries, kids, we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or get the parents mad.

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From the field in Miami to the dome in Atlanta to the red zone in Carolina, the whispers are the same. Three games the Buccaneers should have won. Three games that one big play could have changed. And in three games, they came up short.

Buccaneers: Almost 4-8.

Instead, they fell to 1-11 after a 16-6 loss to the Panthers on Sunday, and the late game heroics against the Packers are as distant a memory as Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen, if you remember those guys.

You can blame Josh Freeman for his five interceptions. He deserves it. You can blame Greg Olson for curious play calling. He deserves it. You can blame the secondary for allowing a backup quarterback to complete 70 percent of his passes, including 66-yard bomb that has become a weekly tradition. They deserve it.

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