How did Devin Lloyd get ready for training camp? By watching film with Luke Kuechly

Luke Kuechly’s a busy guy right now. Two weeks from today, he’s being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s finishing his speech. He’s worrying about details, because that’s what he does. His nature is to be hands-on, to do things himself that others would happily do, so as not to put anyone out. But even now, he’s willing to say no to things.

But Lloyd wanting to catch up wasn’t an imposition; it was a gift — possibly one of the nicest things anyone could have done for Luke Kuechly in this moment of his life.

When asked about their meeting after it had just ended moments earlier, Kuechly just smiled.

Then he took his hand, held it out flat in front of his face, and moved it calmly and slowly to the right, parallel to the tabletop he was sitting at.

“He’s like this,” Kuechly said of Lloyd with a simple gesture. “He’s about ball.”

If Luke Kuechly affirms you as steady, and declares that you are, in fact, “about ball,” there can be no further debate, or any higher compliment.

That’s where Lloyd begins his first season with the Panthers. It’s not just that they wanted him to call the signals and cover some tight ends and tackle people. They need him to be the identity of a defense that has always been identified by the middle linebackers. When your franchise has a Sam Mills, followed by a Dan Morgan, followed by a Jon Beason, followed by a Luke Kuechly, there’s a weight that goes with that. When the next tier of signal-callers includes merely excellent players like Micheal Barrow and Shaq Thompson, you realize what it means to be that guy here.