Andre Smith signs one-year deal with Minnesota Vikings

Andre Smith has signed a one-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings worth a reported $3.5 million.

The Cincinnati-to-Minnesota pipeline continues to flow. On Thursday, the Vikings signed former Bengals OT Andre Smith to a one-year contract. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network says the deal is worth $3.5 million and could go up to $4.5 million with incentives.

The Vikings also recently re-signed former Bengals CB Terence Newman to a one-year deal and signed former Cincinnati LB Emmanuel Lamur to a contract. In recent years, Minnesota has had former Bengals Taylor Mays, Michael Johnson and Chris Crocker in for short looks.

Mike Zimmer isn’t kidding when he says he likes the familiarity factor that comes with signing former players.

Zimmer is definitely familiar with Smith, even though Smith worked on the offensive side of the ball in Cincy while Zimmer was a defensive coordinator.

Andre Smith certainly knows and respects Zimmer, and he seems very excited to be signing with the Vikings.

Before signing with Minnesota, Smith reportedly took a free agent visit in Arizona, though that report has been disputed by Cardinals GM Steve Keim.

Smith himself was reportedly the source on the Arizona visit story. Did Smith concoct a fake visit in an attempt to jack up his price?

Whatever happened in that whole situation, Smith is now a member of the Vikings, and will presumably compete with Phil Loadholt and T.J. Clemmings for the starting right tackle job.

Next: Vikings re-sign Matt Asiata

How serious are the Vikings about getting their offensive line in order? The Vikings now have a larger percentage of their cap space invested in the offensive line than any other team.

And Minnesota could still add more depth on the line in the draft. The Vikings are not messing around with the O-line.