Here at Cat Scratch Reader we have counted down the final 100 days leading up to the Carolina Panthers season opener 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.
#6. Thomas Davis Sr.
Panthers stats: 176 games, 1,098 tackles, 87 tackles for loss, 28 sacks, 13 interceptions
Career stats: 199 games, 1,216 tackles, 90 tackles for loss, 29 sacks, 13 interceptions
Few players in NFL history, let alone Panthers history, have displayed the combination of excellence and resilience as Thomas Davis Sr.
His brilliant 16-year NFL career only came about because of his dogged determination to return from three different ACL tears that would have ended most careers. He’s a living reminder of what it means to overcome the obstacles life throws at you, remain positive and optimistic, then work your rear end off to achieve your goals.
Davis joined the Panthers in 2005 as a first round pick (No. 14 overall) after a stellar career at Georgia. The Panthers went 11-5 that year with a roster that featured a plethora of veteran linebackers like Will Witherspoon, Dan Morgan, Brandon Short, and Chris Draft. All four of those guys had at least 50 tackles in Davis’s rookie season, but even then he carved out a rotational role appearing in all 16 games with 40 tackles and 1.5 sacks.
In 2006 he locked down a starting gig and in the three seasons between 2006 and 2008 he racked up 291 tackles and eight sacks. His 2009 campaign was off to a great start but then he tore his ACL seven games into the season.
Back in 2009 returning from a torn ACL was much more of a dicey proposition than it is today.
Davis put in the work to rehab and returned to minicamp in June 2010, just seven months after his initial injury. On the second day of minicamp he re-tore the same ACL in a noncontact drill and ended up missing the entire 2010 season while he rehabbed for a second time.
He returned in 2011 and in the second game of the season, he tore the same ACL again. It was the third time that ACL had been torn in 23 months. At the time, no professional athlete had been known to return to their sport after tearing the same ACL three times.
But there had also never been an athlete like Thomas Davis.
In 2012 Davis managed to return to the Panthers for his age-29 season and miraculously began a streak of five consecutive seasons with at least 100 tackles. He made the Pro Bowl in three consecutive years between 2015 and 2017, and was All-Pro First Team in 2015 when the Panthers went 15-1 and reached the Super Bowl.
He remained with the Panthers through 2018, his age-35 season, and was still productive with 79 tackles in 12 games.
But by 2019 Carolina was ready for a full-scale rebuild and Davis took his veteran know-how to the Chargers for one season followed by his final campaign with Washington.
Thomas Davis’s 1,098 tackles is a Panthers franchise record.
The Panthers motto is “Keep Pounding”.
That’s exactly what Thomas Davis Sr. did throughout his outstanding 14-year career in Carolina, making him one of the most legendary players in team history.
