Andre Smith will not be reporting to the Cincinnati Bengals minicamp this week, according to head coach Marvin Lewis. Instead the team's offensive tackle will be staying away for undisclosed personal reasons.
Andre Smith will miss Bengals minicamp, says Marvin Lewis
The Bengals offensive tackle will be out for personal reasons.
USA TODAY Sports
“He won’t be here these three days,” said Lewis, via the team’s Twitter account. “He’s dealing with something he’s got to get through.”
Smith will be fined for his absence, since minicamp is a mandatory activity of the offseason for all players.
“You have to be fair,” said Lewis, according to Joe Danneman of Cincinnati’s Fox affiliate. “There have to be ramifications.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said that Smith was expected to report. Clearly Lewis has the updated information, but it shows that the situation was tenuous and perhaps even unexpected for the Bengals.
Anthony Cosenza of Cincy Jungle remains optimistic that Smith can turn the corner soon. At least, he says that’s all that Bengals fans can do at this point:
We’ll see how that this all plays out, but we can only hope the best for Andre Smith and remain hopeful that this is just a blip on the radar, in terms of his ability to be a productive football player for the remainder of his new contract.
Smith signed a new three-year contract this offseason with the Bengals worth a reported $18 million. Smith already missed OTAs for personal reasons and now this absence continues a perplexing offseason for the starting tackle. In addition to the absences, Smith was also arrested in January for bringing a gun to an airport.
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