Cardinals’ Lecitus Smith: People mistake Kyler Murray’s passion for ball

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray on Wednesday caught major shade out of nowhere when Minnesota Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson ranted about the signal caller during the CB’s All Things Covered podcast.

Murray since responded and DeAndre Hopkins has fired off a few tweets in defense of his QB, but that hasn’t kept people from criticizing how the signal caller operates.

Even Peterson on Thursday continued to pile on while trying to explain his remarks.

If you ask Cardinals rookie offensive lineman Lecitus Smith, who works about as close as you can with the QB, people have Murray’s passion twisted for selfishness.

“Kyler’s another guy that I look up to in a way,” Smith said Friday on Cardinals Corner, an Arizona Sports podcast. “I feel like a lot of people look at him as this selfish guy and a guy that only cares about himself but being on the inside — not on the outside looking in — being on the inside, I see that he cares about guys.

Year No. 1 in the NFL has been a ride for Cardinals OL Lecitus Smith (@Lecitus_54).

The rookie joined @Tdrake4sports & @ErikRuby to discuss thriving in chaos, how Sonic(!) helped his career and even defended his QB👀

📻: https://t.co/d1XMMRathT
📺: https://t.co/d5JzELdQN8 pic.twitter.com/gFzUkrviI6

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) December 2, 2022

“To some people, he may not have the best character, they may not know him like some of us do on the inside, but he’s a good dude. He definitely looks out for his guys.”

Diving deeper into his own relationship with Murray, Smith appreciates the signal caller’s straightforwardness. A good example of that was on the second episode of Hard Knocks during a weekly offensive line dinner that Murray frequents.

For a rookie who has said on record numerous times that he did not expect to play this year, let alone start, having those interactions with the franchise quarterback are huge in his development not only in the offense but as an overall player in the NFL.

And at the end of the day, it comes down to being about it, not just talking about it.

“If the guy really did not care, he wouldn’t be spending the majority of his days in the building, putting in extra work, watching film with Colt McCoy, the whole nine, correcting guys like me or even getting into it — I think a lot of people took that clip of he and D-Hop going at it and took it the wrong way,” Smith said. “They’re both going back and forth like that because they are very passionate about this game that they love, that they’ve been playing for some time now.

“If a guy didn’t care, he would just sit back on the bench. The guy signed that contract extension. He is paid. He has the money. If people want to think that’s what it’s about, he has the money. … He could very easily sit back and kick his feet up but that’s not the case. There’s passion there.”

Follow @Tdrake4sports