Frankie Luvu named one of free agency’s most underrated defenders

DJ Chark has some familiar company.

In addition to having one of Touchdown Wire’s most underrated free agents on offense in Chark, the Carolina Panthers also have an overlooked defender who’s about to hit the open market. And that defender is linebacker Frankie Luvu, who makes editor Doug Farrar’s list of this spring’s most underrated defensive free agents.

Farrar writes:

Luvu might be my favorite player on this list, because the more you watch his tape, the more you’re stumped on the things he can’t do as a linebacker. Last season, he played 56% of his snaps at inside ‘backer, 23% outside, and the rest at the line of scrimmage as either a stand-up rusher or as a blitzer. Luvu had seven sacks, 20 total pressures, 84 solo tackles, 47 stops, 10 tackles for loss, and he was great in coverage when asked to do that. If you need a green dot guy in the middle of your defense, there’s nobody better (or more versatile) in this free agency class.

2023 marked the second and final season of the two-year extension Luvu signed in 2022. But new president of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan hopes that won’t be the final season of the backer’s Carolina tenure, as he indicated his interest in re-signing Luvu at last week’s scouting combine.

But can Morgan and the Panthers keep the versatile Luvu from spreading his wings even further in a few days?