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Smith fires agents after draft fall

Geno Smith fired his agents from Select Sports Group on Tuesday, a move the New York Daily News claims is backlash from the West Virginia quarterback falling out of the first round.

A report in The Daily News claimed “Smith thought that he would and should be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft,” even though the Kansas City Chiefs addressed their quarterback needs with the Alex Smith trade. The Daily News story cited sources who said Geno Smith’s representatives from Select Sports made no guarantees regarding his draft position.

If Smith truly was distraught over not being the top player selected — or even falling out of the top 10 picks — then he was delusional. However, Smith told Sirius radio the rift with Select Sports ran deeper than the events of draft night and that he was not bitter about his being picked 39th overall:

“I don’t want to shed too much light on it,” he said. “The thing that I can tell you is that it’s not because of the whole draft experience. It’s not because of one particular incident. There’s a number of things. And that story, you know, that battle will be fought on a different day. As of right now, I don’t feel too comfortable talking about all the details of it.”

Widely perceived as the top-rated quarterback in the draft, Smith instead saw E.J. Manuel taken at No. 16 and didn’t hear his own name called until 23 picks later.
With rookies salaries bracketed by the current collective bargaining agreement, Smith’s first pro contract is believed to be slotted for about $5 million total over four years.




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