Middle Linebacker · Carolina Panthers

Devin Lloyd

No. 55 · 5th season

The guy who made Jacksonville's defense dangerous is gone

There's a number that tells a story on its own: when the Jacksonville Jaguars won the turnover battle, they went 8-1. Defense built around taking the ball away tends to live or die with the players who make that happen.

Devin Lloyd was one of those players. The linebacker was seen as a difference-maker for a Jaguars defense that had made forcing turnovers its whole identity under defensive coordinator Campanile. That kind of player doesn't just fill a role — they set the standard for how the rest of the unit operates.

Now Lloyd is no longer in Jacksonville. He has since landed with the Carolina Panthers, which means that turnover-heavy blueprint the Jaguars built has a real hole in it.

For a team whose defensive wins were so tied to that specific skill, losing the player who embodied it is the kind of thing that doesn't show up on paper until the season starts and someone else is supposed to make that play.

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