Andre Smith May Have Cost Himself a Few Bucks

About five days ago, Alabama left guard Andre Smith was potentially the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft. This morning, he looks to be a late first-rounder. This is what happens when you show up to the Combine out of shape, decide you aren’t going to participate in any drills, then just roll out and fly back to Alabama without telling anyone. ↵↵According to Darren Rovell, all of this may have cost Smith slightly more money than you or I will ever make. Apparently, if 90% of success is just showing up, the other 10% is not disappearing out of the blue during the most important job interview of your life:↵

↵↵⇥Figure Smith would have pulled in a guaranteed $30 million as the No. 1 pick of this year’s draft. ... ↵⇥↵⇥This morning, Peter King told “The Dan Patrick Show” that, as of now, Smith is down to the bottom of the first round. So let’s see how much Smith could have lost. ↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥Let’s put Smith as the fourth offensive tackle taken behind Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe and Michael Oher. Since so many teams took offensive tackles last year in the first round, we’ll put Smith as going to the Philadelphia Eagles at No. 28. ↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥The 28th pick last year was Lawrence Jackson, who received $6.1 million in guaranteed money. We’ll give Smith the benefit of the doubt here and say he’ll get similar guaranteed money to what Duane Brown got at No. 26 last year ($6.2 million). ↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥If it goes down like this, Smith would have lost $23.8 million. ↵⇥

↵↵Yeah, so that’s a bummer for Andre. But for teams picking in the second-half of the first round, this could be great news. Some team may be able to steal a No. 1 overall-caliber player late in the round. You know, assuming he’s not still out-of-shape and nowhere to be found come draft day.↵