Sometimes you have to take a step back, Akili Smith acknowledged Monday evening, to begin moving your career forward again. Having been viewed previously in his career as a franchise savior, a quarterback expected to raise the fortunes of the Cincinnati Bengals, the former first-round draft choice is now seeking salvation himself.

"If there is one thing the (Cincinnati) experience taught me," said Smith, the third player chosen overall in the 1999 draft, "it's that this is a process. It doesn't happen overnight. I'm not saying that, this time around, I'll be starting from the ground up. But I do need to begin over again with some things and to get to a situation where I can learn."

	Smith

That probably means going to a training camp this summer as the No. 3 quarterback on some team's depth chart, a prospect that might never have occurred to Smith a year or so ago, but one with which he is now in full agreement.

Smith, 27, began visiting with teams Monday in a venue appropriate for auditions, as he met in New York with Jets officials and coaches. After a second round of interviews on Tuesday with the Jets, he will fly to Green Bay later in the evening, and he probably will huddle with New Orleans officials toward the end of the week.

There have been reports that the Saints, one of the first teams to contact Smith after his release, have offered a two-year contract. Seattle and Miami also indicated some interest but the Seahawks have not arranged a visit yet and the Dolphins ceased to be a possibility after they signed Brian Griese to a two-year contract.

Despite his lack of success in Cincinnati, where the Bengals invested about $12 million in four years and got only 17 starts out of Smith, the interest in him around the league is not too surprising. It is not atypical in the NFL for a high-round draft choice, released by his original team, to get a second or even a third chance. That is particularly the case at the quarterback position, where teams are always seeking young talents, and where the degree of curiosity is usually heightened.

The Packers didn't even have a first-round grade on Smith prior to the 1999 draft, for instance, but they still want to get a first-hand evaluation of him now.

"He's got a strong arm, and he's athletic, so you kind of owe it to yourself to take a look at him," said Packers director of pro personnel Reggie McKenzie.

None of the teams interested in Smith even has a No. 2 job available for him. But that isn't the only common denominator. All the teams seem to feel there is a chance that, with superior coaching and more nurturing, Smith might yet develop into the player the Bengals felt they were getting in 1999. A Jets coach noted Monday that quarterbacks are "notorious late-bloomers" and pointed out that Smith still had sufficient tools to merit a second shot at success.

Despite his travails in Cincinnati, where he registered an anemic quarterback efficiency rating of just 52.8, Smith isn't prepared to merely purge the four-year experience from his memory bank. Instead it will serve as a sort of cracked foundation for what lies ahead and, in a sense, as motivation to someday fulfill his potential.

But to do that, Smith knows, means putting his career in reverse before perhaps going again into overdrive. He said the four years with the Bengals took an "emotional toll" on him but suggested he is a stronger person for having survived with his confidence intact.

"I'm more mature, mentally tougher now, and probably more realistic," Smith said. "The key now is to get to a winning situation, but also a place where I'll be coached properly, and have a chance to some day accomplish the things I know are possible for me. Taking a step back, sometimes it gives you a better (perspective), and I'm counting on that."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.