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.
#25. JJ Jansen
This list would not be complete if it did not contain the longest tenured Carolina Panther of all time, long snapper JJ Jansen.
Jeffrey Richard Jansen was a quarterback in his early football days but made the transition to long snapper during his sophomore year of high school because he wanted to play football with his buddies. What a decision that was. He ended up getting good enough at it to earn a scholarship at Notre Dame and a shot at the NFL. He initially signed with the Packers and spent his whole rookie season with what was probably one of those kinda pretend injuries teams use as an excuse to stash a player on IR all season.
Following the season, the Packers traded him to the Panthers for a conditional 2011 draft pick (the trade was made in 2009). The rest is history. He’s appeared in 277 of a possible 277 games for the Panthers since he was acquired, and he’s been as reliable a long snapper as a team could have. In those 277 games, he’s been credited with two penalties and one fumble. I’m not totally up to speed on long snapper production around the league, but that seems pretty good to me. It’s also exceedingly rare to see even the slightest bit of waywardness with a Jansen snap. Every field goal and punt operation is clean on the snap and there’s nary a need for the recipient to reach outside the target area to snag a snap.
Jansen is now 40 years old and is the third most tenured player active in the NFL. He’s the longest tenured player in the league for his current team. He’s been with the Panthers since I was a senior in high school, and I’m 35 years old now. What a run. And there’s no reason to believe Jansen won’t continue to snap at an elite level for at least another season. His longevity and reliability land him at number 25 on the list of top 100 Carolina Panthers of all time.
