If ever there was a playbook of exactly what not to do as you prepare for the NFL draft, Alabama tackle Andre Smith either read it cover-to-cover or wrote it. You could not imagine a worse three months leading up to the NFL draft than what Smith has put together, and now the man that many projected as being the first player taken in the draft just a few short months ago, may just be happy to get drafted.

First, Smith got himself suspended for Alabama’s BCS game against Utah, a game they lost in part because their offensive line got eaten alive by the Utes. Strike one.

Then, Smith went AWOL at the NFL Scouting Combine, saying he wasn’t in shape to work out at the combine. Not only did he say he wasn’t in shape, but then he skipped town without telling anyone. Strike two.

Through all of this, Smith was preparing for his personal pro day, where he would do individual workouts for team scouts, an option that many high profile players go with. So Smith had an opportunity with a good workout to make up for his big combine blunder and get himself back into the top of first round.

Remember, at this point, Smith has already dropped from a top five pick to being a bottom of the first round pick — likely already costing himself millions of dollars. The only way to get it back would be to put on a hell of a workout.

Well, the time came for his personal day, and Smith continued his mastery of “what not to do,” as he laid an egg at his personal workout.

According to NFL.com’s Gil Brandt, Smith was not good enough at a single workout drill to have cracked the top ten from the combine in any of them.

Well, his workout times were unspectacular. He came in at 6-foot-4 ¼, 325 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 5.28 and 5.33 seconds. He had a 25-inch vertical, a 7-foot, 10-inch broad jump, a 7.88-second three-cone drill and 19 bench press reps at 225 pounds. He did the short shuttle in 4.93 seconds.

Yahoo! Sports’ Shutdown Corner quoted TFYDraft.com as having heard a scout say it was the “worst workout he ever saw.”

ProFootballTalk.com says a scout said, “he bombed.”

Wow. Strike three.

At this point, it is conceivable that no teams in the NFL want this guy on their roster. I find it hard to imagine that he won’t get drafted, but barring something amazing happening, he’s out of the first round. There’s a very good chance he’s jobless after the first day of the draft.

Realistically, I find it hard to fathom that somebody won’t take him eventually. Let’s be real here — the guy has shown he can play football. Somewhere in the NFL there is a head coach and a strength and conditioning coach that feels they can fix this guy. He’s got too much football skill — and the film to back it up — to not get drafted.

But one thing is for sure — Andre Smith managed to turn a guarantee of eight figures into a tryout to earn six or seven figures. That’s a bad three months.

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