CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When linebacker Devin Lloyd returns to Jacksonville to face the Jaguars on Friday at EverBank Field (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) for the Carolina Panthers' third game of the preseason, his helmet will not only be a different color but it will also have a new accessory attached to it.
Lloyd will wear a green dot sticker on his helmet, an indicator of the headset inside, as the defense's vocal leader -- a responsibility the prized free agent rarely undertook during his four-year stint with the Jaguars.
Lloyd, 27, earned second-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods in his final season in Jacksonville. He cashed in during free agency in March, signing a three-year, $41.9 million deal with the Panthers. And while the money serves as a nice incentive, Lloyd was looking for other things with his second NFL squad: a chance to win and that green dot on his helmet.
"I always practiced wearing the green dot in Jacksonville," Lloyd told ESPN. "I played with the green dot in a couple of games -- shoot, I love it.... That was a nonnegotiable in free agency."