Cincinnati Bengals Need to Pay Andre Smith the Money He Wants

The Cincinnati Bengals have emerged as one of the biggest surprises over the last two seasons and despite early exits in the playoffs, they appear to have a bright future with plenty of young stars. One of the key factors behind the success of Cincinnati’s offensive line over the last two seasons has been right tackle Andre Smith and if they were smart–they would lock him up to the long-term deal he deserves.

After the team made the decision to use the franchise tag on Michael Johnson, their next goal during the offseason appears to be working out a new deal with Smith–who the Bengals used a first-round pick on back in 2009. The Bengals have invested a ton of money in their offensive line over the last couple of years between Andrew Whitworth and Kyle Cook–so locking up Smith to a long-term deal seems like the best approach if they want to continue being contenders in the AFC.

Of course, a player with the talent level of Smith certainly won’t come cheap as he’s asking to be paid between $8.5-$9.5 million per easy. As mentioned before, this certainly won’t come cheap for Cincinnati, but it will certainly be worth the investment when seeing how well the offensive line has been performing over the last couple of seasons.

The Bengals have made a statement in each of the last two seasons by reaching the playoffs when nobody expected them to and they’ll be looking to do that once again in 2013–which is why paying Smith the money he wants would be the right decision.

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