Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly ... Counting down the 10 best draft picks in Panthers history
What fun is an NFL draft season without a good debate?
With that in mind, this week I’m going to name my choices for both the 10 best and 10 worst Carolina Panther draft picks ever.
The Panthers have participated in 25 NFL drafts. I’ve covered every one of them, starting in 1995 when I flew back from New York to Charlotte with quarterback Kerry Collins and interviewed Carolina’s first-ever pick on the plane.
We will start today with my “10 best” list.
Bear in mind that this isn’t just a list of the team’s 10 best drafted players regardless of drafted position, or else names like Jordan Gross and Thomas Davis would appear.
I am instead giving extra credit to players drafted outside of the first round, because finding a future Pro Bowler in the second round or later is far more difficult than finding one among the top five picks. To recognize that degree of difficulty, six of my top 10 were chosen outside the first round.
10. Josh Norman, CB, 5th round in 2012 (No. 143 overall)
In 2015, the Panthers’ most recent Super Bowl season, Norman was the best cornerback in the NFL. He was a starter for three of his four Carolina seasons, then cashed in big and went to Washington when the Panthers rescinded their franchise tag. Along with cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, a seventh-round pick in 2009, Norman ranks as one of the Panthers’ best late-round finds.
9. Kawann Short, DT, 2nd round in 2013 (No. 44 overall)
Short’s value was never more apparent than in 2019, when he went down after Week 2 due to a rotator cuff injury and the team’s defense soon imploded. Former Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman had a thing for “hog mollies,” and Short was the best of them. His 11-sack season in 2015 was remarkable, and his return to the lineup this year is essential.
8. Kris Jenkins, DT, 2nd round in 2001 (No. 44 overall)
In 2002 and 2003, Jenkins was probably the best DT in the game. Jenkins had a prickly personality at times, but he was a key to the Panthers’ first Super Bowl season and a part of the Panthers’ best draft class ever (the George Seifert-led class of 2001, which also included future Pro Bowlers Dan Morgan and Steve Smith). There are some inside the Panthers’ organization who believe Jenkins should be part of the team’s Hall of Honor one day.
7. Ryan Kalil, C, 2nd round in 2007 (No. 59 overall)
To find a future five-time Pro Bowler who can anchor an offensive line deep in the second round — that’s a dream pick. Kalil and Gross would battle it out for best Panthers’ offensive lineman of all time, but Kalil is on this list and Gross is not because Gross was a high first-round pick and thus was considered more likely to have a stellar career.
6. Christian McCaffrey, RB, 1st round in 2017 (No. 8 overall)
McCaffrey is the only player on this list from the past five Carolina drafts, which is one reason why the Panthers have only made the playoffs once since 2015. McCaffrey, though, was obviously a spectacular pick and will be the team’s unquestioned star in 2020. The Panthers have had good fortune with a couple of other first-round running backs, too — DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart both had a number of fine seasons. Neither ever had a year quite like McCaffrey did in 2019, though.
5. Muhsin Muhammad, WR, 2nd round in 1996 (No. 43 overall)
The receiver they call “Moose” was overlooked in the first round of a receiver-heavy draft. Keyshawn Johnson went No. 1 overall in 1996. Moose, though, had 46 more catches and 867 more receiving yards than Keyshawn did in his NFL career. And man, what a blocker Moose was.
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4. Julius Peppers, DE, 1st round in 2002 (No. 2 overall)
All Peppers did in an extraordinary 17-year career (10 of them with the Panthers) was make the NFL All-Decade team for the 2000s — and then make it again for the 2010s.
Peppers is a surefire Hall of Famer; he missed only two games due to injury in those 17 years and was effective into his late 30s. The lone player drafted ahead of him? Quarterback David Carr, who the Panthers briefly employed, too. That didn’t go as well.
3. Cam Newton, QB, 1st round in 2011 (No. 1 overall)
Newton’s Carolina career recently concluded under somewhat controversial circumstances, but what a career it was. Carolina’s only NFL Most Valuable Player (in 2015), Newton holds almost all of the franchise’s passing records and was one of the best rushing QBs in league history. You need to hit a home run when picking No. 1, and with Cam, the Panthers and general manager Marty Hurney did.
2. Luke Kuechly, MLB, 1st round in 2012 (No. 9 overall)
L-u-u-u-k-e rates a touch ahead of Cam on this list because he was the ninth overall pick instead of the first. Kuechly wasn’t considered a sure thing and a number of questionable players went before him (Matt Kalil was the No. 4 pick that year). Kuechly’s sudden retirement after the 2019 season was a blow, but he was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 and leads the Carolina franchise with seven Pro Bowl selections.
1. Steve Smith, WR, 3rd round in 2001 (No. 74 overall)
Smith told Hurney before his career ever began that he would be the best player the Panthers ever employed. Then he went about proving it over an extraordinary career. Seifert officially made this pick, but then under-utilized Smith by using him almost exclusively as a returner in 2001. No one ever made that mistake again.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
