CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With moving boxes stacked up around him in the Carolina Panthers locker room last Monday, Shaq Thompson stood in front of a group of reporters and talked about being in the same position Thomas Davis found himself in seven or eight years earlier.
Thompson, the 30-year-old linebacker, wasn’t talking about his actual place in the locker room, though he could have been. Thompson has the same locker stall Davis occupied for much of his 13-year tenure with the Panthers.
Thompson was referring to the NFL’s circle of life: How he’s gone from the rookie drafted to replace the veteran Davis to being the veteran who could be on his way out after two injury-shortened seasons and the arrival of linebacker Trevin Wallace in last year’s draft.
Thompson will be a free agent in March, and there’s no guarantee he’ll stay with the team that drafted him in the first round out of Washington in 2015.
“I would love to end my career here. Be one of the guys in history to play with one team,” he said. “But it’s up to them. These two injuries … there’s nothing I can do. But it happened. Get better and come back strong.”
Davis missed all or parts of three seasons before becoming the first player to return from three ACL surgeries on the same knee. After announcing Thompson as the Panthers’ pick during the 2015 draft, Davis played four more seasons in Carolina — a stretch that included three consecutive Pro Bowl berths and his only All-Pro honor during the Super Bowl season of 2015.
With his comeback story and legendary toughness — Davis played Super Bowl 50 with a metal plate in his right forearm, which he’d broken in the NFC Championship Game — the former first-round pick from Georgia was the embodiment of the Panthers’ “Keep Pounding” mantra.
Thomas Davis played with the Panthers from 2005 through 2018. (Bob Donnan / Imagn Images)
But with Luke Kuechly and Thompson set as the inside linebackers when Ron Rivera switched to a 3-4 scheme in 2019 at David Tepper’s urging, Davis didn’t finish his career in a Panthers uniform. He played one year with the Los Angeles Chargers and one in Washington (with Rivera) before retiring at 37 as the Panthers’ career tackles leader with 1,258 — 21 more than Kuechly.
“I’m in his position now,” Thompson said of Davis. “(The Panthers) drafted Trev. … I think he played well when he was out there. I can’t be more excited for him.”
“T.D.’s just giving me a lot of motivation to get back,” Thompson added. “Everybody knows what he went through. I got really nothing compared to that. I feel like I can come back from it.”
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Thompson broke his ankle in Week 2 of the 2023 season when New Orleans Saints tackle Trevor Penning fell on him. He was back on the field for training camp and was off to the best start of his career before getting hurt again.
With a career-high 14 tackles in a Week 2 loss to the Chargers, Thompson had racked up 30 tackles through three games, which ranked third in the NFC and 10th in the league. But on the final play of the third quarter in a Week 4 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Thompson went down on a noncontact play with a torn Achilles.
Before he was carted off, Thompson had a message for Wallace, the third-round pick from Kentucky. “He was telling me, ‘Just go out there, bro. Go be you. Go play,’” Wallace said after the game.
A few days later after his surgery, Thompson had a video call with Dave Canales when the rookie coach was leaving the practice field.
“He wanted to know how practice went. Could you imagine anything else from Shaq?” Canales said in October. “For a first-time head coach, I can’t say enough, what it means for a veteran guy like Shaq Thompson to send me texts after the games to support the messaging. Going to the rest of the guys to embody it, to play with the style that we’re looking for all across the board and just really be just such a leader and a team guy.”
Thompson’s leadership and mentoring of Wallace reminded veteran long snapper J.J. Jansen of another Panthers linebacker.
“I think T.D. demonstrated to Shaq what being a veteran on a team that’s trying to get younger at your position is supposed to look like,” Jansen said. “T.D. was incredibly competitive and tough and sort of, ‘You’re not taking my job,’ but while at the very same time (was) mentoring Shaq, taking him under his wing, rooting for him and encouraging him.”
When he progressed to the point in his rehab where he could walk, Thompson asked the coaches whether he could accompany the team on trips. He’d done the same thing in 2023 to help stay connected.
“It just made me feel part of the team,” he said. “Going through injury, you’ve gotta get your mind off a lot of s—. Just being around the team did that for me. Made me feel like I’m still there, being able to help coach these guys and just be around the game.”
Even though he only played four games this season, Shaq Thompson remained engaged with the team. (Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images)
The Panthers finished 5-12 and missed the playoffs for the seventh year in a row. But the way the Panthers competed during the second half of the season gives Thompson hope for the future.
“I think Canales really has something good going. I think a lot of guys, you could definitely tell in the second half, really bought in,” he said. “All these games turned out to be fun, whether we lost or whether we won. Guys came in here ready to work, ready to grind.”
Whether Thompson will be part of the future remains to be seen. He agreed to a pay cut before last season that reduced his guaranteed salary to $1.7 million and cleared about $3 million in cap space. So it’s not a stretch to think Thompson would consider taking a team-friendly deal to play an 11th season in Charlotte.
“Talked to a lot of guys, a lot of people have been with multiple teams, whether it’s five years, 10 years, two years. But it’d be a blessing to finish my career off here,” he said. “But that’s up to them, how they view me or see me. If I’m part of the future or not, it is what it is. I’m just here to get healthy.”
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Thompson is scheduled to begin jogging on the field in a couple of weeks and has been told he should be cleared for training camp. “Whether they sign me back or don’t, I’m excited to get back next year,” he said. “I’m supposed to be ready by July, but trying to shoot for June.”
Thompson doesn’t have the Pro Bowl selections or the accomplishments of Davis and Kuechly, a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. But with four consecutive 100-tackle seasons from 2019 to 2022 and five seasons as a team captain, Thompson has carved out his own legacy.
“Shaq got to see what being a pro at the highest level looked like under T.D. (and) Luke. That dynamic for three or four years really framed how Shaq has led our team the last three or four years when he became the big cog in that room and on that defense,” Jansen said.
“What was demonstrated to him in ’15, ’16, ’17, he has modeled back to the rest of the team (in) ’22, ’23, ’24. And from our position — or at least from my position — hopefully more years to come.”
(Top photo: Ian Maule / Getty Images)
