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With Jermaine Gresham recovering from hernia surgery and Tyler Eifert already having dinged his shoulder, the Bengals re-signed tight end Alex Smith this week. It's a 1-year deal, and here are the contract details from Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post:
Bengals TE Alex Smith negotiated his own 1-yr., $920,000 deal: $855K salary, $40K bonus, $25K roster bonus, $635K cap on min. salary benefit
— Aaron Wilson (@RavensInsider) June 12, 2014
Smith has 119 NFL games played, with 57 starts. He has 160 receptions for 1461 yards and 12 touchdowns.
The fact that Smith negotiated his own deal says how much he wanted to be here after playing in a reserve role last year with Cincinnati. And because Cincinnati have him a $40,000 roster bonus, that's a clear indicator he's more than just a camp body.
Smith will at least be on the roster until final cuts prior to the opening of the regular season. As long as he does well in the preseason, he'll probably be the third tight end on the final 53-man roster.
That is, if Orson Charles remains at fullback. If the Bengals decide to move him back to TE though, it would be hard to cut the younger Charles in favor of Smith, going into his 10th NFL season.