Luke Kuechly shocked the entire NFL with his decision to retire at the age of 28. After eight years of dominating the rest of the league from the linebacker position for the Carolina Panthers, no one was expecting this news. He is leaving the league in the prime of his career.

Following the news of Kuechly retiring, his former head coach spoke out about the news. Ron Rivera may have taken the head coaching job for the Washington Redskins, but he still had some thoughts about his former defensive star walking away from the game he loves.

Rivera took to his personal Twitter account to send a message out about Kuechly and what the star linebacker meant to him and the league as a whole.

Assuming that Kuechly truly has played the last game of his career, he will end with impressive numbers. He will have racked up 1,092 total tackles to go along with 12.5 sacks, seven forced fumbles, eight fumble recoveries, 18 interceptions, a defensive touchdown, and 65 defended passes. Those numbers show just how dominant Kuechly was in his 118 career games with the Panthers.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Kuechly. Some believe that he will end up coaching in the NFL, while others think he might just make a return to the field at some point in the future.

No matter what he ends up doing, Kuechly has left his mark on the NFL. His legacy will be remembered in Carolina for quite some time. The Panthers were lucky to have a talent like him and he will be missed in a big way.