Luke Kuechly, Panthers linebacker extraordinaire and ... pass-rusher in training? Yep.

Look, no one’s doubting what Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly can do on a football field.

All the man has done since being drafted ninth overall in 2012 is accrue more than 900 tackles — including five last week in a 36-21 victory over the Baltimore Ravens — be named First-Team All-Pro four times and lead the Carolina Panthers to a whole bunch of victories.

But if there was one thing he’s still working on?

His pass-rushing.

“I’m trying to!” Kuechly said with a smile Thursday. “Coach (Steve) Russ does a really good job of designing stuff for us to be successful.”

It’s not like Kuechly’s a slouch, either. He has 12.5 career sacks, but with two already through seven weeks, he could easily surpass his career-high for one season (three, back in 2014).

Against the Ravens, for example, Kuechly didn’t quite sack Flacco, but he finished with two quarterback hits. One of those came on fourth down, forcing an incompletion from Flacco and gifting the ball back to the offense.

“On that one play where I was able to get to Flacco, coach made a great call and we had a protection that we were looking for and we got the right protection,” Kuechly explained, “so he dialed something up that was great and I just had to go in there and kind of do what they asked us to do.”

Any hurt feelings about not getting the sack?

“Oh no, I’m good!” Kuechly said, laughing. “As long as we got the ball back, that’s all I was worried about.”

Coach Ron Rivera said he has seen Kuechly grow as a pass-rusher, and especially since training camp this year.

“Luke is a very active player, he sees a lot of what’s going on, and one of the things he always wants to do is he wants to see where he thinks he has to improve,” Rivera said. “I know pass rush is one of those things because he’s not a natural blitzer.

“He’s more of a read-and-react linebacker who just gets downhill. Learning to counter, to dip, to do more than just bull rush I think is really what he wanted to do, and he has worked on it, and you can see it from training camp on.”

Rivera added that aside from Kuechly’s desire to improve as a rusher, he’s starting to see certain pass-rushing instincts develop. Getting a feel for countering on plays, for example.

With 18 sacks this year, Carolina is tied for 21st in the league entering Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay. With Thomas Davis back after a four-game suspension to start the year plus Shaq Thompson’s continued development and increased playing time, Kuechly finally has his full compliment of linebackers around him.

That, in theory at least, should present him with some more favorable matchups. Kuechly will have his hands full with Tampa’s top-ranked offense this week, including explosive tight ends O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate, but he should also have opportunities to get after Ryan Fitzpatrick.

That’s what Kuechly expects, at least, by the sound of his final remarks Thursday.

“It’s been fun,” he said with a grin, “to get in there and make something happen.”