Luke Kuechly might be the most sound tackler in all football. The Carolina Panthers star combines rare physical gifts with textbook form and innate instincts that allow him to track ballcarriers and bring them down both in a crowd and in space more reliably than perhaps any other defender in the NFL. Earlier this week, though, an unlikely foe left Kuechly grabbing for air while trying to make a tackle.
At a football camp for Charlotte youth hosted by Kuechly and Carolina receiver D.J. Moore, some participants were given the chance to make the All-Pro linebacker miss in the hole. While it's safe to say Kuechly corralled most of the campers, Ki'Anthony Smith juked him so bad that the 11-year-old has become a viral sensation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BztbzK_njIe/
Got him! Scroll to the second video in the Instagram post above, by the way. After Kuechly whiffed on Smith the first time, he made sure to not make the same mistake twice, sprinting to the ball with a tepid forearm shiver that left his pre-teen opponent in a heap.
Smith, who goes by K.D., has since made multiple appearances on television to discuss his juke of the player who many believe is football's top linebacker. He even made an appearance on NFL Network's Good Morning Football.
Kuechly was named First Team All-Pro for a fifth time in 2018. He had 130 tackles, a career-high 20 tackles for loss, two sacks, and one interception last season, but the Panthers struggled defensively relative to expectations regardless, finishing 19th in points allowed and league-average in yards against.
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