Surprise weight check sold Lewis on Smith
Team selects Alabama tackle, USC linebacker with first two picks.

By Joe Kay
Associated Press 11:11 PM Saturday, April 25, 2009

Two days before the draft, the Cincinnati Bengals called offensive tackle Andre Smith and told him to get ready for a surprise visit to his home in Birmingham, Ala., one that would involve getting on a scale.

When the junior tackle weighed in at 337 pounds, only slightly higher than his playing weight, the Bengals were sold. The huge lineman with some big questions about maturity would be their first-round draft pick.

Cincinnati took Smith with the sixth overall pick on Saturday, bringing in a lot of girth to help protect quarterback Carson Palmer. The junior from Alabama gave teams some second thoughts when he left the scouting combine unannounced in February.

Two months of visits, including that surprise one on Thursday from offensive line coach Paul Alexander, convinced the Bengals to make Smith the first offensive tackle they’ve taken with a top pick since Levi Jones in 2002.

“We’ve really liked him and wanted just to make sure,” coach Marvin Lewis said. “This is a big pick for us, and we wanted to make sure this is the right person for us.”

His big proportions fit their biggest need.

Palmer got battered last year because the line couldn’t protect him. He broke his nose in the preseason and needed surgery, then sprained his ankle and tore a ligament and tendon in his passing elbow in the first three games of the regular season.

The elbow injury forced him to miss a dozen games, but healed without surgery. Heading into the draft, the Bengals knew there was only one way to go with their top pick. It had to be an offensive lineman.

But, which one?

Smith was considered one of the best, able to push people around with his long arms and 6-foot-4, 330-pound frame. The questions started when he was suspended for the Sugar Bowl, reportedly for having improper dealings with an agent, which he denied.

At the NFL combine, teams asked him about the suspension. Smith then raised a whole new set of questions by leaving the combine unexpectedly without giving notice or explanation to the league. His weight fluctuations also made some scouts leery.

Smith’s main job will be protecting Palmer, whom he met in another unexpected encounter. When he got on his flight for a predraft workout in Cincinnati, Smith saw Palmer sitting across the aisle.

“I told him, ‘Put in a good word for me,’ ” Smith said.

In the second round, the Bengals went for another Southern California linebacker, looking to improve their anemic pass rush. Rey Maualuga will be reunited with former USC linebacker Keith Rivers, who was the Bengals’ top pick last year.

The Bengals liked Maualuga so much that they considered taking him in the first round if they traded down from the sixth spot. They got some insights about him from Rivers, who will be his teammate again.

“It’ll be a great feeling,” Maualuga said. “We talked and he’d play around saying, ‘I’m trying to get one of you (Southern Cal) linebackers to come and play with us,’ whether it’s Brian Cushing or Clay Matthews or myself.”

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