Sounds like a coach saying what positive things he can and declining to badmouth players to the media. I like it.
The reality here is that people have long been pretty exaggerated with their criticisms of Smith, bleeding into things like how he's lazy or not popular or dumb or not very coachable (granted some of these criticisms are limited and not widespread). Smith is a pretty popular player, so it's not a surprise that Quinn would go to him to get feedback on what's going on with other players, how they are feeling, etc.
It's nothing more than that. It also doesn't mean that Quinn is now gonna play Smith more than he should. I suspect Smith is going to find his snaps cut significantly and he'll be used in ways to try to get the most out of him.