Here at Cat Scratch Reader we have counted down the final 100 days leading up to the Carolina Panthers season opener by for at least the past ten years. We’ve always done this by highlighting the current player on the roster whose jersey number matches the day on the countdown. This year, we decided to change that up a bit by counting down our own list of the Top 100 Panthers of all time. This does not correspond to jersey number, does not need to be somebody who wore a jersey, and will in no way be controversial.
#46. Mario Addison
I think you’d be hard pressed to find a more self made player than Mario Addison. He’s never had any prestigious pedigree or flash to his game, but he steadily improved as a football player to become an unlikely high level contributor for a number of years. He might not be a household name, but he was quietly a very good player for a pretty long time. And I bet you can’t guess where he ranks all time among Panthers in sacks.
Addison was barely recruited out of high school and spent two years at junior college before transferring to noted football power Troy University. There, he had to redshirt a year before playing as a reserve player as a fourth year junior. He was able to break out just enough in his one season as a starter to get looks from NFL teams. He signed on with the Bears as an undrafted free agent, and while he made the team as a rookie, playing time was sparse, and he was ultimately cut. He bounced between practice squads and active rosters across four teams in his first two seasons. The last of those was the Carolina Panthers.
Addison latched on as a rotational pass rusher and was quite productive in his somewhat limited playing time. He became a full time starter for the first time in his NFL career at age 30, and he responded by tallying 11 sacks and two forced fumbles for a Panthers team that went to the playoffs in 2017. He followed that with 9 sacks the next year and 9.5 the year after. He totaled at least six sacks in his last six years in Carolina and at least nine in his last four, the last three of which he was a starter.
Addison departed after the 2019 to reunite with Sean McDermott and seemingly every other departed Panthers defender with the Buffalo Bills. He spent two seasons there before ending his career with a single season in Houston.
Addison’s ascension is truly as gritty as they get. He incrementally improved basically from the time he was a senior in high school all the way through his first starting gig in the NFL at age 30. You almost never see that. His steady improvement, longevity, and consistent production led him to rack up 55 sacks in a Panthers jersey. That’s fourth in team history, just a half sack behind Mike Rucker. He’s a great story, and he was a great player. For that, he comes in at number 46 on the list of top 100 Panthers of all time.
