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.
#90. Kerry Collins
Panthers stats: 45 Gs, 8,306 yards, 47 TDs, 54 INT, 51.8% completions
Career stats: 198 Gs, 40,922 yards, 208 TDs, 196 INT, 55.7% completions
Quarterback Kerry Collins holds the distinction of being the first player ever drafted by the Carolina Panthers.
Back in 1995, the team’s debut season, the Panthers selected Collins with the No. 5 pick in the draft and ultimately anointed him as the team’s starting quarterback as a rookie. He was coming off a wildly successful college career at Penn State including being a consensus All-American, Big Ten MVP, and finishing fourth in the Heisman voting. Few college players are ready to immediately start at the NFL level, and that’s doubly true when starting for a brand new team with a brand new roster and brand new coaching staff.
But Collins was ready enough to help the Panthers succeed right out of the gate. As a rookie he started 13 of 15 games in which he played, leading Carolina to a 7-6 record in his starts. He threw for 2,717 yards with 14 touchdowns, but he also tossed 19 interceptions and completed just 49.4% of his passes.
In his 1996 sophomore season he took a major step forward. He started 12 of 13 games in which he played that year with a 9-3 record. His completion percentage improved to 56%, he threw for 2,454 yards with 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He made the Pro Bowl as the Panthers went 12-4 that year, won the NFC South and beat the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs before losing to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game. It looked like the sky was the limit for the upstart franchise knocking on the door of the Super Bowl behind their young Pro Bowl quarterback.
But instead of ascending, Collins’ early career in Carolina began to go off the rails in 1997. First, he broke his jaw in the preseason with a difficult recovery. But off the field, he later revealed he was struggling with alcohol abuse during this period and while intoxicated he used a racial slur at teammate Muhsin Muhammad. He lost the locker room with his behavior. He struggled on the field as well, going 7-6 as a starter that year but only completing 52.2% of his passes, averaging just 163.3 passing yards per game, and throwing 11 touchdowns against a league-leading 21 interceptions.
By 1998, his fourth season in Carolina, the wheels had come off. He began the season 0-4 as a quarterback and completed just 48.2% of his passes. At that point he told coach Dom Capers it would be better for the team if somebody else played quarterback. Collins removed himself from the lineup. As word went around the locker room of Collins’ request, there was no going back. He was waived by the team six days later.
In his three-plus seasons as a Panther, Kerry Collins led the team to incredibly high highs, including being just one win away from reaching a Super Bowl in the team’s second season. But his lows as a Panthers were equally low, both on and off the field.
While the circumstances leading up to his departure from the Panthers would have ended many careers, Collins went on to salvage his. In all he played 17 seasons in the NFL, threw for over 40,000 yards, and made two Pro Bowl teams. He currently ranks No. 23 for career passing yards. You can reminisce about some of his career highlights here:
His highs after the Panthers included leading the New York Giants to a 12-4 season and the Tennessee Titans to a 12-3 mark as a starter, earning his second Pro Bowl nod. On the flip side, he went 7-21 as the starter for the Oakland Raiders over two seasons and ended his career on a 2-14 streak as a starter.
Kerry Collins’ 17-year NFL career played out similarly to his three-plus seasons as a Panther: The highs were exhilarating, but the lows were equally painful.
