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Trevin Wallace's 15 tackle performance cements his status as future of Carolina Panthers' defense

Matt Alquiza

Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
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The Carolina Panthers may have unearthed a hidden gem in Trevin Wallace.

Recent day two draft history hasn't been kind to the Panthers. Jonathan Mingo, DJ Johnson, Matt Corral, Terrace Marshall Jr., Brady Christensen, Yetur Gross-Matos, and Jeremy Chinn make up Carolina's Friday night draft haul from this decade. Flashes had been shown by each of those players at times, but as it stands, none have inked a second contract with the Panthers. And those that are left on the roster don't look poised to do so.

With that in mind, the fact that Wallace racked up a whopping 15 tackles in his NFL debut carries a little more weight. The training camp superstar's day was punctuated by a thumping fourth down tackle that brought D'Andre Swift down short of the line to gain. On a day in which Swift and the Bears ran wild every time they had the chance, Wallace's forced turnover on downs is a moment worth celebrating.

According to Wallace, he was blissfully unaware of the situation.

Trevin Wallace speaks on his big fourth down stop

"What's crazy was, I didn't even know it was fourth and one...Listen, I was just in the moment playing. I was just playing ball...I got up and was looking like 'where's everyone going?' They was like 'you made a fourth down stop! I was like, 'oh, I did?'"

The rookie linebacker's performance was a bright spot on an otherwise dreary afternoon for the Panthers in Chicago. Wallace was bestowed the honor of calling the Panthers' defensive plays following Shaq Thompson's season-ending Achilles injury. Starting an NFL game at linebacker for the first time is difficult as is. Being the leader and play-caller for the defense on top of it? Talk about having your hands full. Wallace walked away from the afternoon feeling positive about his first full day of action.

On calling plays: "Oh it was good. You know every time I got done and came to the sideline I was like 'hey, y'all boys, how am I doing?' Everyone was like 'you're doing good." I was asking Josey how I was looking out there, just getting feedback from them."

Wallace can rest easy. He played extremely well in his first extended NFL action. Carolina looks like they drafted a long-term piece in the later rounds of the NFL Draft, and all it took was replacing Scott Fitterer with Dan Morgan to make it happen.

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Matt Alquiza
MATT ALQUIZA

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