Bengals Agree To Terms With Andre Smith

((HT: Cincinnati Enquirer/Reedy))

It is a four-year deal worth $26 million with $21 million guaranteed. The Bengals have an option after the 2010 season that would push the deal $42 million over six years with the maximum worth $50 million.

The team and Smith’s agent, Alvin Keels, met throughout the weekend at Paul Brown Stadium, with the deal being announced a half hour before practice. Smith ((pictured, thanks Cincinnati Enquirer file)) arrived in Cincinnati Sunday morning and was waiting in the locker room as the deal was being completed.

“We’re excited to have Andre with us now,” coach Marvin Lewis said in a statement. “He has a lot of work to do, but he knows the challenge ahead of him to make an impact on our team as soon as possible. Our vision of him is simply as a physically dominating player on our offensive line, and we know that this guy wants to be very, very good.”

Smith was on the practice field for the first time since the last minicamp session on June 20. During the first 30 minutes, which were open to the media, Smith did do some line work with the second unit.

“Andre is a very powerful man,” said offensive line coach Paul Alexander. “He can knock ’em back better than anyone who was in the draft, and that’s why we took him. And it was a very good year for offensive linemen.”

Here's one of the reasons the Bengals took Smith...
Skip forward to the :40 mark... and hide your eyes...
((HT: Tide Sports Video))

Andre Is Fitting In As A Bengal

((HT: PFT/Florio))

Some might call it sour grapes. Others might call it just desserts.

Either way, the folks at Priority Sports aren’t messing around when it comes to former client Andre Smith, who officially has re-hired his original agent, Alvin Keels, after firing Keels and hiring Rick Smith of Priority Sports in the days preceding the 2009 draft.

In a statement sent exclusively to PFT (yep, these guys are geniuses), Priority Sports had this to say about the Bengals’ latest first-round pick:

“In regards to Andre Smith, we are moving forward and devoting all of our attention on the high character, hard working and honest clients of Priority Sports.

“We were asked to come in at the last minute to provide credibility to his draft status and we succeeded in that task. Soon after the draft, Andre Smith became a tremendous distraction to our company. What we have subsequently determined is that Andre Smith does not match the culture of Priority Sports and the character of the clients we take so much pride in representing.

“This will be our final statement on this matter.”

W. O. W.

A fair inference to be drawn from a between-the-lines reading of the statement is that those rumors of Andre Smith and Keels deciding that Smith would fire Keels and hire Priority Sports merely to enhance Smith’s draft status, with the intention of firing Priority Sports after the draft and re-hiring Keels, are right on the money. (Keels has denied that Smith fired him with the intention of re-hiring Keels later.)

At a minimum, the folks at Priority Sports seem to be suggesting that Andre Smith doesn’t have high character, isn’t hard working, and isn’t honest.

The Priority Sports statement is certain to spur debate in the agent community. Some agents will criticize Priority Sports for taking a bare-knuckled approach to a man who could have been the first overall pick but for a bare-chested 40-yard dash.

But, frankly, some agents criticize anything any other agent does, because that’s simply the way many agents are wired. We like the approach, and not just because Priority Sports opted to send the statement to us.

Then again, it helped.