Cam, Luke, Peppers, Smith: These are the 15 greatest Carolina Panthers of all time

As the Carolina Panthers approach their 30th season, I decided to look back before we start looking forward — to training camp in late July and preseason games in August and the 2024 season opener in September.

Since I’ve covered all of the previous 29 Panthers teams for The Charlotte Observer, why not make a list of the best 30 all-time Carolina players as the team approaches Year 30?

Numbers 30-16 appeared in Part 1 of this two-part series. Here are numbers 15-1.

Again, a reminder of my primary rule in ordering these players:

It doesn’t count what you did somewhere else.

Only Panther seasons matter here. So a player like Kevin Greene, who’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, makes my top 15 but not my top 10 because only three of his 15 NFL seasons — albeit three spectacular ones — came in a Carolina uniform.

So let’s start counting them down, 15-1:

No. 15. Kevin Greene

Games as a Panther: 47, in 1996 and 1998-1999.

Best highlights: I don’t think we will ever see this again among an elite Panther pass rusher: in Greene’s worst season as a Panther, he had 12 sacks. That would lead the team most years. In his other two, he had 14.0 and 14.5. For Carolina, no one has gotten to the quarterback, nor celebrated in a more hilarious way when he got there, than Greene. He led the NFL in sacks in 1996, with 14.5. A Pro Football Hall of Famer, Greene is third all-time with 160.0 sacks.

Notable: Greene died at age 58 in 2020. One marker of how young the Panthers really are as a franchise: 28 of their top 30 players are still alive. Only Sam Mills and Greene are deceased.

No. 14: John Kasay

Games as a Panther: 221, from 1995 to 2010.

Best highlights: Kasay, the left-footed placekicker, was one of the first free agents signed in 1995. Then he stuck around for 16 years, setting the team scoring record so high (1482 total points) that no one else is within 700 points of it. He won a ton of games for Carolina and led the NFL in made field goals in 1996 with 37, when he made the Pro Bowl.

Notable: Yeah, Kasay yanked a kickoff out of bounds late in the Super Bowl. I’ve always maintained that didn’t matter nearly as much as many fans believe it did. Tom Brady was going to score against the Panthers defense on that drive; I don’t care if he started at his own 3-yard line.

No. 13: Jordan Gross

Games as a Panther: 167, from 2003 to 2013.

Best highlights: A three-time Pro Bowler and a member of the team’s Hall of Honor, Gross was the best left tackle the Panthers have had and was a steady locker-room presence for a decade. People appreciate him more in retrospect, as LT has mostly been a revolving door ever since he left.

Notable: After retirement, Gross returned to his rural hometown of Fruitland, Idaho, and began coaching his old high school team — the Fruitland Grizzlies — while running his family’s farm.

No. 12: Christian McCaffrey

Games as a Panther: 64, from 2017 to 2022.

Best highlights: Lots to choose from here, but you won’t beat McCaffrey’s 2019 season. He had 1,000-yard seasons both rushing and receiving, 2,392 yards (third-most in NFL history at the time) and didn’t lose a single fumble in 403 touches. The Panthers traded the running back to San Francisco in 2022, where he promptly became an even more dangerous threat with a better team around him (again, the remarkable 2023 he had as a 49er doesn’t count for purposes of this list).

Notable: The Panthers largely wasted the McCaffrey years. Despite having one of the NFL’s best backs, Carolina only made it to one playoff game with McCaffrey on the team in five-plus years. In San Francisco, he’s already played in six postseason games in two seasons.

No. 11: Wesley Walls

Games as a Panther: 98, from 1996 to 2002.

Best highlights: Walls made the Pro Bowl five times in his seven Panther seasons, including his very first in 1996 when he had 10 touchdowns for a Carolina team that didn’t even like to throw that much. But when it was time, both Kerry Collins and Steve Beuerlein seemed to look for No. 85 first.

Notable: The Panthers put Walls into their Hall of Honor in 2019. In 1999, he tied a then-NFL record for tight ends with 12 touchdown catches. He also scored the very first touchdown in Carolina’s first playoff game, a win over Dallas in the 1996 postseason.

No. 10: Greg Olsen

Games as a Panther: 126, from 2011 to 2019.

Best highlights: From 2014-16, Olsen was as good a tight end as there was in the game. He was the first tight end to record three straight 1,000-yard seasons during that span and also made the Pro Bowl all three of those years. On third down, when the going got tough, Cam Newton was usually looking for Olsen.

Notable: Olsen, who still lives in Charlotte with his family, has become lauded both for his community service and as one of television’s finest football broadcasters. He has already worked a Super Bowl in the booth.

No. 9: Muhsin Muhammad

Games as a Panther: 155, from 1996-2004 and 2008-2009.

Best highlights: Muhammad led the NFL in receiving TDs (16) and receiving yards (1405) in 2004. He was also known for years as one of the best blocking wide receivers in the league. His “Shhhh” touchdown in the playoffs at Philadelphia turned into a Sports Illustrated cover.

Notable: After Muhammad retired following the 2009 season, quarterback Jake Delhomme said: “When I think of what a picture of a pro football player would look like, I think of Muhsin Muhammad.”

No. 8: Ryan Kalil

Games as a Panther: 148, from 2007 to 2018.

Best highlights: As the Panthers’ center for more than a decade, Kalil protected everyone from Jake Delhomme to Jimmy Clausen to Cam Newton. He made the Pro Bowl five times as a Panther.

Notable: Kalil once filmed a short mockumentary with Will Ferrell about preparing for the NFL Draft that remains a classic. He also was a longtime team captain and commissioner of the Panthers’ locker room toy basketball P-I-G tournament, which provided both laughs and deadly serious competition.

No. 7: Jake Delhomme

Games as a Panther: 91, from 2003 to 2009.

Best highlights: Delhomme’s very first game featured him coming off the bench at halftime and leading Carolina all the way back from a 17-point deficit to beat Jacksonville. The leading architect of the “Cardiac Cats” of 2003, Delhomme was a late-game specialist who threw for 211 yards — n the fourth quarter alone — in the 38th Super Bowl.

Notable: Delhomme is now the team’s radio announcer. Most of his franchise records were broken by Cam Newton, but he remains Carolina’s all-time QB leader in playoff victories, with five.

No. 6: Sam Mills

Games as a Panther: 48, from 1995 to 1997.

Best highlights: Mills keyed Carolina’s very first win, against the New York Jets in 1995, when he intercepted a Bubby Brister shovel pass and took it back for a touchdown. Mills, who played the first nine years of his 12-year NFL career with New Orleans, made the Pro Football Hall in 2022.

Notable: While fighting cancer as a Panthers assistant coach in 2003, Mills gave the team what is now known as the “Keep Pounding” speech before its playoff win over Dallas in that postseason. “Keep Pounding” has been the team’s slogan ever since. He is the only Panther player with a statue outside Bank of America Stadium.

No. 5: Thomas Davis

Games as a Panther: 176, from 2005 to 2018.

Best highlights: Davis is not only the Panthers’ all-time leading solo tackler but also the only player in NFL history to successfully come back from three ACL surgeries on the very same knee. His toughness was legendary. He played in Super Bowl 50 following the 2015 season after breaking his arm only two weeks before. All three of his Pro Bowl appearances came after his three ACL surgeries.

Notable: In 2014, Davis was named the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year for his community service. He’s the only Panther to win the award, which he considers his highest individual honor.

No. 4: Julius Peppers

Games as a Panther: 154, from 2002-2009 and 2017-18.

Best highlights: Peppers recently became a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer. He ranks fourth all-time in the NFL with 159.5 sacks in his 17-year career and was the first Carolina player who played a majority of his career with the franchise to make the Hall of Fame. As a rookie out of UNC in 2002, Peppers was also the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Notable: Peppers was one of the rare players to go to high school and college and play for the NFL team in his home state. “Probably the biggest human being I’ve seen in my life on the football field,” Panthers quarterback Cam Newton once said of the 6-foot-7, 295-pound Peppers. The only reason Peppers isn’t higher on this list is he spent seven NFL seasons elsewhere.

No. 3: Luke Kuechly

Games as a Panther: 118, from 2012 to 2019.

Best highlights: The greatest linebacker the Panthers have had, Kuechly made the Pro Bowl seven times in his eight-year NFL career. He was also the only Carolina player to be named the AP’s Defensive Player of the Year, in only his second season (2013). Speed, smarts, work ethic, ball skills, mad respect from his peers — Kuechly had it all. In the 2015 playoffs, he returned interceptions for touchdowns against both Seattle and Arizona.

Notable: If Kuechly isn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I will be somewhat surprised. The only thing voters could knock him for is his early retirement, at age 28, when he theoretically had at least five good years left. Kuechly experienced several concussions in his final years as a pro.

No. 2: Cam Newton

Games as a Panther: 133, from 2011 to 2019 and 2021.

Best highlights: Newton’s 2015 season was the stuff of dreams and produced the Panthers’ first and only NFL Most Valuable Player. He led Carolina to a 17-2 record (including playoffs) while throwing 35 touchdown passes and also showcasing the running skills that made him the best quarterback run threat on fourth-and-1 in NFL history. The Panthers have never employed a more electric player.

Notable: Newton came back to the Panthers in 2021 and actually started five games, but Carolina went 0-5 in those. He remains the NFL leader in rushing TDs by a quarterback (75, including 63 in Carolina).

No. 1: Steve Smith

Games as a Panther: 182, from 2001 to 2013.

Best highlights: A close call over Newton and Kuechly, but I give the #1 nod to Smith here mostly because he played 13 years in Charlotte compared to Kuechly’s eight and Newton’s 9.5.

Originally a Pro Bowl kick returner, Smith turned into a dazzling receiver who could come up with jump ball catches over defenders a half-foot taller than he was.

In 2005, Smith wowed the NFL by winning the wide receiver “triple crown” — leading or tying for the league lead in receiving TDs, receiving yards and receptions. And what he did to the Chicago Bears in the playoffs that year (12-218-2) should be illegal.

Notable: Smith was on the receiving end of the most famous play in team history — the 69-yard, X Clown, double-overtime golden touchdown strike from Jake Delhomme to No. 89 against St. Louis in the 2003 playoffs. And he leads the team in touchdowns scored, with 75.