Panthers Moments No. 8: Luke Kuechly Gets Drafted

The First Appearance of Kuechly

Welcome back to our Panthers Best Moments series, our ranking of the Panthers top-25 moments to celebrate the team’s 25th season as a member of the National Football League.

If you missed our two entries yesterday, where we chronicled the greatest kick in franchise history and the greatest comeback story in team history, go back and give them a read.

In today’s entry, we are going over one the greatest draft picks in team history: Luke Kuechly

Kuechly Was a Stud Coming Out of College

Kuechly played at Boston College, whos biggest defensive prospect to come out at the time was Mark Herzlich. Kuechly was a starter during his freshman year and played lights out. By the time his sophomore year rolled in, he was considered to be the nation’s top linebacking prospect.

His junior season landed him on the Panthers radar, as the All-American won almost every major defensive award in 2011, including the Ronnie Lott Award, the Dick Butkus Award, Nagurski Award. When he announced he was entering the NFL Draft, he left Boston College leading the NCAA in tackles for two straight seasons and leading the ACC in tackles for three straight seasons.

Kuechly was widely considered the best linebacking prospect in the draft in 2012 and some even considered the best defensive prospect overall. On draft night, Kuechly had to wait to hear his name called after watching Morris Claiborne and Mark Barron get drafted ahead of him. With the Panthers up at ninth overall, the team drafted him after he fell into their lap.

Captain America Has Been a Monster with the Team

Kuechly made an immediate impact playing with the Panthers, and played alongside Jon Beason and Thomas Davis to become a formidable linebacking core. Kuechly’s 165 combined tackles his rookie season paved the way for him to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award.

Since then, Kuechly has been nothing short of consistently stellar. “Captain American” has made the Pro Bowl every season except his rookie season and named All-Pro in all but two seasons.

Kuechly won the Defensive Player of the Year Award in the NFL during the 2013 season, the team’s first season back in the postseason since 2008. The former Boston College standout is widely regarded as a player that other players enjoy as well, as he has been in the NFL Top 100 Players, which is voted on by the players, in every season since 2013.

Kuechly will one day go down as one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history. If he can win at least one Super Bowl and win one more DPOY award, he will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day as well.

That’s it for this entry on our list, stay tuned for our next entry, which will feature the 2015 season yet again.