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.
#83. Matt Campbell
Panthers stats: 69 games, 59 starts; 3 receptions, 32 yards
Career stats: 8o games, 63 starts; 3 receptions, 32 yards
Matt Campbell played his college ball at South Carolina from 1990-93 as a tight end. He was good enough to get an invitations to the Senior Bowl and NFL combine, but he went undrafted in 1994. Campbell began his NFL career that year on the New Orleans Saints practice squad.
In 1995 he joined the Carolina Panthers for their inaugural season. That year he appeared in 10 games for the upstart Panthers and caught three passes for 32 yards.
The Panthers saw enough from Campbell to bring him back in 1996, but they would do so as an offensive lineman instead of playing his natural tight end position. And the position change paid off. In 1996 he started eight of nine regular season games in which he played at both tackle and guard. The Panthers advanced to the NFC Championship game that year, and Campbell started both of Carolina’s postseason contests.
Over the next four season, from 1997-2000, Matt Campbell became a mainstay at left guard. He started 48 of 50 games over that stretch. The Panthers coveted him enough in 1998 to match an offer sheet from the Miami Dolphins of three years and $8 million. While those numbers look tiny when compared to today’s NFL salaries, that was big money back then for an interior offensive lineman. The new contract made him the highest-paid offensive lineman on Carolina’s roster.
In 2001 he joined the then-Washington Redskins for the final season of his NFL career. He started five of 11 games for Washington. In 2002 he was selected by the Houston Texans in the expansion draft, but he didn’t make the roster.
Campbell’s career arc with the Carolina Panthers was impressive. It’s rare for a tight end to successfully make the transition to interior offensive lineman, but Matt Campbell did just that in carving out his role among the Top 100 Panthers of all time.
