Lecitus
Smith.
Lecitus
Smith.
Virginia Tech· 6'3"· 314 lb· 5.18s 40
"Four straight years starting on the interior for Virginia Tech bought him ten rookie games in Arizona and then eight teams' worth of practice squads: a leverage blocker whose arms and feet kept ending the conversation."Pre-draft read
A short, wide interior blocker built for a downhill run game. At 6-3 1/4 and 314 pounds with 31 7/8-inch arms, Smith is squat by NFL tackle standards and that is the point: he plays with natural leverage, gets his hands inside quickly and generates movement on down blocks and duo, which is exactly what Virginia Tech asked of him at left guard.
The athletic testing says what the tape says. A 5.18 forty, a 4.78 shuttle and a 7.88 cone are heavy numbers, so he is a straight-line mover who wins at the point of attack rather than on the second level or in space. Short arms let quick interior rushers into his chest, and his pass sets can get upright once the rush counters back inside.
A gap and duo run game that keeps its guards on the line of scrimmage, blocks down and pulls short rather than asking them to reach and climb in wide zone.
Year 1: swing interior backup who can cover three spots. Ceiling: a starting guard in a power run scheme that hides his range.
An outside-zone offense that needs guards to reach a shaded nose and get to the second level on the move every snap.
His leverage is real, but his arm length and foot speed decide whether he is a starter or the ninth lineman.
NFL Draft Profile: Lecitus Smith, IOL, Virginia Tech
Pre-draft profile and interview with the Hokies' four-year interior starter.
Guard Lecitus Smith, Virginia Tech: The Bills 'did their homework'
His own account of the pre-draft process, weeks before Arizona took him 215th.
All Access: Mic'd Up with Lecitus Smith and Coach Vice
Wired up in practice with his position coach during his Virginia Tech career.
Smith arrived in Blacksburg from Fitzgerald, Georgia, where he was a 2A first-team all-state pick, and redshirted in 2017 without seeing game action. The breakthrough came in 2018: 11 games with four starts, the first of them at left guard at North Carolina in October, followed by starts against Georgia Tech, Boston College and Cincinnati in the bowl.
From there he simply held the job. He started 12 games at left guard in 2019 and earned All-ACC honorable mention, sitting out only the North Carolina game with an injury before returning at Notre Dame. In the shortened 2020 season he started all 11 games and was honorable mention All-ACC again while the Hokies led the conference in rushing at 240.1 yards per game and set a school record with 5.58 yards per carry, clearing space for Khalil Herbert's 1,182-yard season.
His fifth year in 2021 brought ten starts, nine at left guard and one at left tackle against Richmond, and a Reese's Senior Bowl invitation. He finished with 45 career appearances and four full seasons of interior starting reps in a power conference. At the combine he measured 6-3 1/4 and 314 pounds with 31 7/8-inch arms and put up 25 bench reps. Teams liked the résumé and the leverage, and flagged the length and the foot speed.
- 01
Four years of Power Five starts
he held a left guard job at Virginia Tech from 2018 through his fifth year in 2021.
- 02
Natural leverage
a 6-3 frame with a wide base that lets him win the pad-level battle against taller interior defenders.
- 03
Run-game production
anchored a 2020 line that led the ACC at 240.1 rushing yards per game and set a school record for yards per carry.
- 04
Positional flexibility
took snaps at left tackle against Richmond in 2021 and later played center and guard in the NFL.
- 05
Upper-body strength
25 bench press reps at the combine, and hands that reset quickly once he is latched inside.
- 01
Short arms
31 7/8 inches gives interior rushers a first-contact advantage and shrinks his margin for a late hand placement.
- 02
Heavy feet
a 4.78 shuttle and 7.88 cone confirm a blocker who struggles to redirect against stunts and inside counters.
- 03
Limited range
not a fit for a wide-zone offense that needs its guards climbing to linebackers and reaching backside defenders.
- 04
Pass-set discipline
he can rise out of his stance under pressure, which turns a leverage strength into a liability.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.18sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- 99inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.88sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.78sp50
- Bench
- 23repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Virginia Tech | 11 |
| 2019 | Virginia Tech | 12 |
| 2020 | Virginia Tech | 11 |
| 2021 | Virginia Tech | 11 |
| Career | — | 45 |
Games played come from Sports-Reference, which lists 11 in 2018, 12 in 2019, 11 in 2020 and 11 in 2021 for a career of 45 appearances including bowls. Starts come from Virginia Tech's official bio: four in 2018, 12 in 2019, all 11 in 2020 and ten in 2021 (nine at left guard, one at left tackle against Richmond), which sums to 37. Offensive linemen have no statistical splits on cfbstats, so no other counting stats are recorded rather than filled with zeros. He redshirted in 2017 without game action, so that season is not listed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Powerful interior blocker whose NFL role kept shifting between guard spots without settling.
Thick, short-armed guard who became a high-level starter in a downhill scheme that suited his leverage.
Interior lineman with real college starts who never converted practice-squad stops into a steady job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Arizona used him right away. He played ten games as a rookie in 2022 with two starts, moving between center and both guard spots on a 4-13 team, and that remains the bulk of his NFL career. The Cardinals released him in final cuts on August 29, 2023, and the rest of that season was a practice-squad tour: Houston signed him on November 1 and let him go six days later, Philadelphia added him on November 14 and gave him a reserve/future deal in January before releasing him that April.
Green Bay signed him on May 6, 2024, cut him in August and kept him on the practice squad, and New England signed him off it to the active roster on October 15. He played eight games for the Patriots with one start, which was his most stable stretch since the rookie year. The Patriots released him in March 2025, Pittsburgh claimed and waived him inside two months, and he returned to Green Bay in August for a season of elevations and practice-squad signings that produced one start. Denver signed him on August 13, 2026, after Michael Deiter got hurt, then released him on August 30. Four seasons in, the ledger reads 19 games and four starts.