If you remember, Bengals tackle Andre Smith had a procedure done earlier this year that was designed to strengthen his foot, a clean-up procedure to prevent a future break. The rehabilitation lasted much longer than the expected 10 weeks, far into training camp, slowing his development during a sophomore season that he was expected to kickoff a long-term reign as the team's starting right tackle.
The only thing is, the procedure appeared to not work at all. According to Geoff Hobson, Andre Smith broke the same foot that caused him to miss much of this year's training camp and preseason. It's the same foot that caused him to miss the entire first half of the 2009 season. Even worse is that he broke foot originally during non-contact drills during practice. Smith broke the same foot during practice on Wednesday.
On Wednesday during a pass protection set, he suffered a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal, the bone on the outside of the foot and next to the fourth metatarsal that he broke last season and had surgically repaired in January.
While head coach Marvin Lewis told the media that a decision to have surgery would be made on Thursday, the team has elected to give Dennis Roland the start in his place. That means Robert Mathis will have a field day and Carson Palmer, well, we loved you man. Smith "could be out for the year."