‘He Continues To Work’: How Devin Lloyd Has Adjusted Amidst a New Role in Week 12
The narrative around Devin Lloyd’s rookie season can be summarized in two parts.
The 2022 first-round pick started off the season strong, with Pro Football Focus ranking Lloyd seventh among linebackers with a 78.2 overall grade. During that stretch, he led rookies with 24 tackles and 6 passes defended in addition to being a disruptive force in the run game.
Since then, Lloyd quickly reminded everybody that he is a rookie. His struggles reached a peak in Week 10, where he spent the majority of the 27-17 loss on the sidelines, while fellow teammate and rookie third-round pick Chad Muma saw a career-high in snaps. Despite this setback, head coach Doug Pederson noted that Lloyd responded well in practice this week.
“Really good,” Pederson said. “He’s done a nice job of accepting where he is but at the same time, he continues to work, and special teams becomes more important for him. Him and Chad (LB Chad Muma) sort of flip roles just a touch.
"He’s been in a great frame of mind this week, and that’s what you want in situations like this, and it kind of frees them up a bit.”
Defensive Coordinator Mike Caldwell made clear that simplifying the defense is a priority for the coaching staff and one that should help the players moving forward. For Devin Lloyd, this commitment to simplicity represents a prime opportunity to help him regain his footing.
“I think so,” Caldwell said. “Anytime you’re going back to what you’re doing, like in the NFL, you game plan weekly, different opponents cause different problems. So you want to go out there and try to put yourself in the best position to stop that team, but then you always have to go back and understand that we have an identity, we need to stick to that.
"And I think that’s what the bye week did, got us back to, alright here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna, you know, still game plan, but we’re mainly going to focus on ourselves, correcting ourselves, our mistakes, and go from there.”
