Late Tuesday night, Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly announced his shock retirement from the NFL, leaving the team with a significant hole to fill on their defense.
I say shock retirement because Kuechly is just 28 years of age and in his athletic prime. He finished the 2019 season with an overall PFF grade of 87.6, his sixth consecutive season grade above 85.0, making him a top-five linebacker league-wide. Looking back over any period of time, though, you can make a good argument that he is the best linebacker in the game, so from that lens, walking away seems like a strange choice.