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.
#2. Julius Peppers
It is the penultimate entry in our list of top 100 Panthers of all time. We’ve hit lots of fan favorites and players that were good to great. Now we’ve reached the best of the best. The best player to ever suit up on the defensive side of the ball for the Panthers comes in at number two on our list, defensive end Julius Peppers.
Peppers is a Carolina kid through and through. He grew up in Bailey, North Carolina, about 30 miles east of Raleigh. He didn’t play football growing up, but his sheer size and athleticism caught the eye of the coaching staff of his high school, and he quickly turned into one of the most dominant players in the state on both sides of the ball. He received a scholarship to play football at UNC and also walked on to the basketball team. He was a reserve forward for the basketball team while we was assembling an elite resume as a defensive end for the Tar Heel football team. He was considered a generational talent entering the 2002 NFL Draft.
The Panthers had the number two pick in that draft with the first overall pick going to the expansion Houston Texans. Fortunately, the Texans elected to take David Carr with the first overall pick to be their franchise quarterback. That meant Peppers was sitting right there for the Panthers at the second pick.
Peppers delivered on the hype. He registered 12 sacks, five force fumbles, and an interception en route to Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2002. He added a modest seven sacks in his sophomore season before fully breaking out as an elite defensive end. He earned his first of six All Pro nominations in his third season with 11 sacks and two interceptions, including a 97 yard pick six. He would spend five more seasons in Carolina after that, accumulating double digit sacks in all but one season in which he was uncharacteristically ineffective.
The Panthers elected to let Peppers test free agency after the 2009 season, and Peppers opted to leave to sign with the Chicago Bears. He spent four seasons there before hopping over to the division rival Packers. He spent three years before making a return to his home state. He tallied 11 sacks in his first season back in Carolina despite being 37 years old. He added five more sacks in his age 38 season before announcing his retirement at the end of it.
Peppers finished his career with 159.5 sacks, fourth most in NFL history (0.5 sacks behind Kevin Greene for third). 97 of those came with the Panthers, 29.5 more than any other player to wear the black and blue. He scored six defensive touchdowns and blocked 13 kicks, showing just how much of a menace he was in every facet of the game.
The two seasons that Peppers spent in Carolina to end his career did a lot to improve his standing with the fan base. During his first stint, there was a perception among parts of the fan base that he wasn’t always giving full effort despite his dominance, and his even keeled persona was often misconstrued as apathy. Those frustrations further boiled over when Peppers refused to re-sign with the team and ultimately left in free agency. Some time apart allowed for a storybook ending, with Peppers returning home to become a fan favorite to end his career and ultimately ending up in the team’s Hall of Honor.
Peppers was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024 and became the first player to spend the majority of his career in Carolina to earn that honor. The end of his career quashed any beef between he and the fan base, leaving him as the inarguable best defensive player to play for the Panthers. For that, he comes in at number two on the list of top 100 Panthers of all time.
