In Jacksonville, Devin Lloyd’s familiar. In Carolina, he’s the “centerpiece of the defense”

Setting that standard has been one of his specialties. Again, Lloyd would be the first player on the practice field every day if it wasn’t for local try-hard Chuba Hubbard (who was even early to rehab on a day he wasn’t practicing), and that pre-camp film study with Kuechly was another sign of the little things he’s doing right every day.

“Absolutely, he’s a dream to have,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. “He’s professional. He’s a great human; he plays with his hair on fire, sideline to sideline, and, when he steps into the huddle and says the call, there’s a confidence that comes with it that this is going to work and the guys rally around that.”

The Jaguars didn’t always invest that responsibility in him, so coming to the Panthers this offseason gave him a chance to build on the leadership, to call a defense,

“When he’s on the field, he doesn’t stop talking,” outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen said. “He’s trying to help everybody out, the front line especially; he’s always like calling out alerts, play calls, alerts before it happens, and it just makes playing defense much easier.”

Known communicator Nick Scott also vouched for that ability, saying Lloyd has impressed with his quick grasp of the system.

“One of the things that was really nice with just being with Devin is there’s no drop-off in communication,” Scott said. “He’s somebody that learned the defense extremely fast, so he’s driving the bus out there like he’s been part of this for a while now, which is really encouraging.

“He made some plays, and he just really serves as a centerpiece for our defense.”