Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers guard Lecitus Smith, who was placed on waivers on Tuesday by the team, has cleared waivers and is now a free agent, according to the NFL transactions page for Wednesday.
It’s been an interesting offseason for Smith. He started out on the 90-man roster of the New England Patriots after spending the last three months of the 2024 season with the Pats. Smith was waived by the Patriots on March 21 and claimed from waivers by the Steelers on March 24.
Without the Steelers gathering together a full team or even doing as much as putting on a helmet, Smith was released by Pittsburgh earlier this week, even though the Steelers did not not add an offensive lineman in the 2025 NFL Draft, though the club did sign guard Aiden Williams and tackle Gareth Warren as undrafted free agents.
Smith, 26, was originally a sixth-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals coming out of Virginia Tech in the 2022 NFL Draft. He played in 10 games as a rookie and even made two starts, playing mostly at right guard.
After his second training camp with the Cardinals, Smith was released. He spent time with the Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles practice squads in 2023, but did not play in a game. He re-signed with the Eagles for 2024, but was waived in April.
Smith caught on with the Green Bay Packers, was cut at the end of training camp and was signed to the practice squad. The Patriots signed Smith off the Green Bay practice squad on Oct. 15 and he played in eight games, making one start. Smith spent most of his time with the Patriots on special teams, playing just five snaps of offense, mostly as a jumbo tight end.
The Patriots placed Smith on waivers, and the Steelers snapped him up. But without ever getting a look at him on the field, the Steelers have now decided to part ways.
A 6-foot-3, 314 pounds native of Fitzgerald, Georgia, Smith picked the Hokies over Arkansas, Louisville, NC State and Oklahoma as a three-star prospect in 2017. He redshirted in his first collegiate season, but made four starts in 2018.
Smith played almost exclusively left guard for Virginia Tech, taking over the starting job as a redshirt sophomore in 2019 and holding the job for three seasons. He also played one game as a left tackle as a redshirt senior in 2021.
In pre-draft testing, Smith showed below-average size, strength (23 bench press reps) and explosiveness (8-foot-3 broad jump, 25.5-inch vertical), but ran a solid 5.18-second 40-yard dash and posted above-average shuttle and three-cone times for an overall 6.48 Relative Athletic Score.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Just-Released Steelers Offensive Lineman Clears Waivers
