CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Retired Carolina Panthers middle linebacker Luke Kuechly is considering a front-office job as a pro scout, the team said Wednesday.
Kuechly, 29, surprisingly retired in January, saying he wasn’t sure if he could play as “fast, physical and strong” as he did during his eight NFL seasons that included seven Pro Bowl selections and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2013.
He didn’t explain why he wouldn’t be able to play at the level to which he was accustomed, but Kuechly missed seven games from 2013 to ’17 because of concussions.
The Los Angeles Chargers’ Anthony Lynn wants to do more than make a statement.
Lynn — one of four non-white coaches in the NFL — is feeling frozen by last week’s death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody and the ensuing protests that have swept across the United States, telling the Los Angeles Times that he isn’t sure what the next step is, though.
“I haven’t done anything to make this a better place for my son,” Lynn told the newspaper on Monday. “I remember having the talk with him when he was 16 about how to handle police, and then at age 30, I called him up and just had the talk with him again because I’m so scared. I want to do something, but to be honest with you, I don’t know what that is.”
Lynn expressed his shock at the death of Floyd, who died May 25 after police offer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. But the Chargers coach said he was more dismayed by the three police officers who did not intervene.
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“You can’t just stand on the sidelines and just watch. You got to say something, man,” Lynn told the Times. “The thing that bothered me the most about (the) George Floyd murder was the three officers that said nothing. The guy who did it, yeah, he’s a (expletive), but the three who stood by and did absolutely nothing … I’m just stunned by that. I see that going on in every organization. I see good people saying nothing and doing nothing, allowing this to happen.”
Lynn said his first attempt to do more was to take part in a protest at Huntington Beach. He said his initial feeling that he was “marching for the right reasons” was diminished when he spoke to a protest leader and discovered the lack of a long-term strategy.
“The protest was there to help people express themselves, but there was no endgame, no plan,” Lynn said. “All of the sacrifice and protest, I wanted to know at the end of this, if something was going to be done. I don’t want to be doing this again 20 years from now, and so I’m looking for ways to sit at the table and have a conversation about this broken system.”
Lynn also discussed Colin Kaepernick’s attempt to bring awareness to issues of police brutality and racial inequality four years ago. Lynn said the message from the quarterback’s decision to kneel during the national anthem was lost — whether intentionally or not.
The Chargers coach also said it was tough for him as an African American to see Kaepernick not given a shot to continue to play in the NFL.
“I know when you look at 32 quarterbacks in the National Football League, Colin could have been one of the 32,” Lynn told the newspaper. “If not, he could have been a quality backup. For me being an African American head coach, this is tough.”
With league sources saying that the market to sign Cam Newton has cooled over the past month, the veteran quarterback is expected to take his time before joining a team, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Newton could wait until teams resume regular activity following the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. That could give teams the chance to check Newton’s health and meet with him in person.
Sources around the league aren’t sure whether Newton would take a backup job.
League sources believe Newton and the New England Patriots talked early during his free agency but nothing materialized.
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Newton, 31, has been a free agent since the Panthers released him March 24, ending a nine-year relationship with the quarterback they drafted No. 1 overall in 2011.
Newton, who holds most of Carolina’s career passing records, missed 14 games last season with a Lisfranc injury in his left foot and the final two games of the 2018 season with a shoulder injury that also required surgery. He underwent surgery for the Lisfranc injury in December.
Newton had a physical in Atlanta on March 23 that was coordinated by the Panthers and his agency, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Newton passed the physical and is healthy, with both his shoulder and foot “checking out well,” a source told Schefter.
Information from ESPN’s David Newton was used in this report.