Sir Purr
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- Mar 16, 2019
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"I think what was very fortunate for me coming in was that I had (Jon Beason) here and Thomas (Davis), and Jordan Senn was in the locker right next to me," Kuechly said. "So I had a lot of older, veteran guys around me who were very beneficial to me developing. If I didn't have those guys early on, I don't think I would have been able to progress as fast as I did."
And, boy, did Kuechly progress quickly.
After starting the first four games of the year at weakside linebacker, Kuechly started the last 12 at middle linebacker following a season-ending injury to Beason. To say Kuechly flourished, especially after being moved to the middle, would be an understatement.
Kuechly produced 10 or more tackles in 12 games, including nine in a row and 11-of-12 after moving to the middle linebacker. He ended the season with a team-record 205 tackles and became the first rookie to lead the NFL in tackles since Patrick Willis of San Francisco in 2007. And that wasn't all. Kuechly finished first on the Panthers with three fumble recoveries and tied for first with two interceptions to go along with one sack and five passes defensed.
As a result of his efforts, he was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. But to this day, Kuechly humbly credits just about everyone else but himself for earning the award.
"I think, obviously, it's a very cool award and it shows you what can happen when you work hard," Kuechly said. "But especially in football, a lot of these individual awards are the result of your team. I think it goes back to what I said about all the guys who helped me along. I won that award because later in the season all that coaching and all the help the veteran players gave me really started to pay off."
Kuechly has long admitted that he is most comfortable at middle linebacker - his position at Boston College before the Panthers selected him in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft with the ninth overall choice. And it showed right away when he moved to that position for the Panthers. But Kuechly still heaps praise on Beason for helping him with the subtleties of playing the position in the NFL.
"I played in Beason's spot when he got hurt, and there was no resentment at all," he said. "Right away he was like, 'All right, what can I do to help Luke?' And he sat next to me in the meetings every day and walked me through things and showed me how to do stuff and watched film with me. Then Thomas was my guy on the field.
"So all those guys were great, and a lot of my success that year had to do with them. The coaches all made sure I was prepared, too. When I was messing up my first few games, they all stuck with me, and I was able to kind of get my feet under me and go."
He really got going in a home game versus Atlanta on December 9. No matter where a play needed to be made, Kuechly seemed to be the one making it as he racked up a season-high 19 tackles, 16 of them solo., to earn NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.