Trevin Wallace makes NFL defensive debut for Carolina Panthers in win over Raiders

Former linebacker for the Kentucky Wildcats, Trevin Wallace, made his NFL defensive debut for the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's win over the Oakland Raiders 36-22. Wallace is a rookie and has not seen the field in the regular season as a linebacker. He was a star linebacker for the Wildcats and had 166 tackles and ten sacks in his three years at Kentucky.

Wallace has played for the first two games in the special teams unit but has yet to record a stat. This was his NFL debut in his primary position and on the defensive side of the ball.

According to the snap count list Wallace played on 11 snaps as a linebacker for the Panthers, and they put him mainly on the edge or in the outside lane. The thought was to rotate him in as a way to find ways to get pressure on the quarterback.

Fans were excited about Wallace getting playing time because they wanted to see the 72nd overall pick get into the game and show why the Panthers picked him in the third round. The Panthers were very high on Wallace coming out of their draft with Dan Morgan saying, "Athletic freak, a guy that can run sideline to sideline, strike ball carriers, and I think his ceiling is really high."

Wallace produced two tackles in 11 snaps, which is a solid result for a linebacker, much less a rookie linebacker seeing his first playing time. The Panthers will head home to take on the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend, and it will be fun to see how much more Wallace gets in the mix and how effective he can be throughout the rest of the season.

What did Wallace have to say about it? He wasn't one of the post-game interviews, but he did take to Twitter. Instead of focusing on the fact that he was able to make his NFL defensive debut, he was much more happy about the win.