Luke Kuechly remains one of the top defenders in the NFL and the best middle linebacker in the league. The Panthers’ star just added another feather to his cap by being ranked among the league’s top 20 players in 2018 by Pro Football Focus. In their annual list of the NFL’s top 101, Kuechly came in at No. 18 this year.
Here’s what PFF had to say about Kuechly’s season.
“One of the league’s best talents at the linebacker position, Kuechly finished the season with an NFL-high 12.0% run-stop percentage. Logging 39 defensive stops in 325 run-defense snaps, Kuechly also led all qualifying off-ball linebackers in run-defense grade (92.3) in 2018.”
At a certain point you run out of superlatives to describe Kuechly’s game. As the Panthers mull a transition to a 3-4 defense, they can rely on Kuechly going above and beyond his job description. It will be interesting to see how they rebuild the defensive front-seven around him this offseason.
