Growing up in a military family helped prepare Devin Lloyd for a career in the NFL.
Lloyd had a breakout season in 2025 and has carried that momentum into a new season with his new team.
Lloyd, who was a second-team AP All-Pro linebacker last year in Jacksonville, had two interceptions, including a pick-6, in Carolina’s 34-3 win over Atlanta last Sunday.
Both of his parents are U.S. Navy veterans with a combined 40 years of service. What did they teach
him?
“It just comes down to the little things that you do when nobody’s watching, making your bed every morning, keeping your bathroom clean,” Lloyd said on the AP’s “Football Unfiltered” podcast. “My dad would have me wake up and cut the grass on Saturday mornings, just all the little things. I had to ride my bike to school. I wasn’t driven to school, and my school, keep in mind, was 1 ½ miles away and I had go up a hill, so just doing the mundane things over and over again and some of them may be more challenging than others, and some may be simple, but it’s still finding a way to get the job done all the time. So just those little tendencies, I guess, just grew into habits over time and became who I was.”
He became a dependable playmaking linebacker who was drafted in the first round by the Jaguars in 2022. After Jacksonville declined to exercise his fifth-year option before last season, Lloyd had an outstanding campaign. He had five interceptions, including a 99-yard pick-6 and made his first Pro Bowl.
The defending NFC South champion Panthers signed him in free agency to upgrade the defense. Carolina gave up 59 points against Chicago in the season opener but shut down Bijan Robinson and the Falcons, who were missing their top two quarterbacks.
“There was something schematically we did where we just toned it down just a little bit just to tailor-shoot the players that we had," Lloyd said. "And ultimately, it just came down to, a mentality, guys having the right mentality up front in the run game and then in the back end just capitalizing on the opportunity.”
Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher hasn’t looked back since leaving the sideline after the 2006 season. He quickly joined CBS and has stayed in touch with football as a studio analyst for the past two decades.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been tempted to go back,” Cowher said on the AP’s “Football Unfiltered” podcast. “I think I had to make some personal choices. And I thought that I go on the other side of this. I have a great platform for me. I talk to a lot of people around the National Football League involved with a lot of different committees. So I love the game, I love what the game teaches.”
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