From one Carolina linebacker to another, Luke Kuechly has great things to say about new Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson. It’s an older comment from March at the NFL Scouting Combine but now that Wilson is with the Steelers, it is relevant for us to talk about. Appearing on Up and Adams with Kay Adams, Kuechly praised Wilson’s game and demeanor.
“At the draft, I always look at linebackers,” Kuechly told Adams. “And there’s a guy I loved watching for a long time up at NC State. Payton Wilson. He ran extremely well in the 4.4s. And he’s been super productive, and he plays super hard.”
High praise from Kuechly, one of football’s best off-ball linebackers throughout his career, one unfortunately cut short by injury. Wilson has offered the praise back at Kuechly. Born in North Carolina, he grew up watching Kuechly dominate throughout his NFL career. Now with his chance in the league, Wilson will try to do the same.
In a world where linebackers are getting smaller, sacrificing size for speed, Wilson brings both. Like Kuechly, he’s a big guy, nearly 6-4 and 233 pounds but ran a blistering 4.43 at the NFL Combine. Healthy over his final two years at NC State, Wilson was one of college football’s most productive players and the top linebacker, winning the Chuck Bednarik Award his senior season.
Wilson earned several Kuechly comparisons throughout the pre-draft process with his Wolfpack DC even linking the two earlier today.
Kuechly said he was even jealous of Wilson and the opportunity he has in today’s age where everyone is bigger, faster, stronger.
“He’s taller than me and he’s faster than me and he’s going to be in the NFL. I’m jealous of those guys.”
A seven-time Pro Bowler, Kuechly burst on scene in 2012, winning Defensive Rookie of the Year. In 2013, he was named Defensive Player of the Year. Injuries were the only problem, cutting his career short after his age-28 season due to repeated concussions. Wilson, entering the league with his own checkered medical history, will look to avoid the same fate. But everything else Kuechly embodied as a football player, he’ll try to match.
