Lewis Not Happy With Stacy Andrews

On the same day that the Bengals crowed about the compensatory picks they’ve received based on free-agency losses in 2008, the team’s head coach griped about a player who got away in 2009. Specifically, Marvin Lewis discussed the departure of tackle Stacy Andrews, who signed with the Eagles shortly after hitting the market. “I was surprised because he led us to believe differently,” Lewis said of Andrews, according to Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I was disappointed because Stacy led us to believe that he wanted to stay [in Cincinnati], so it was up to his representative to get a contract done. We felt like we had a deal done and then, all of a sudden, he walked away and that disappointed me.” But, frankly, that’s one of the risks of letting a player get to the market. The Bengals had the exclusive ability to negotiate a long-term deal with Andrews, the team’s franchise player in 2008, prior to July 15 and after the team’s last regular-season game, according to Article XX, Section 2(k) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The exclusive ability to do a deal with Andrews ran all the way up until 11:59 p.m. EST on February 26. By letting Andrews become a free agent, the Bengals risked that he would sign elsewhere. They could have avoided that outcome by using the franchise tag again on Andrews. They opted instead to apply the tag to a kicker. And even though it’s possible that the Eagles were talking to Andrews’ agent before 12:01 a.m. EST on February 27, the Bengals needed to account for the possibility of tampering when deciding not to franchise Andrews, especially since pretty much every team tampers with pending free agents in February of each year.