When the Carolina Panthers selected University of Washington’s Shaq Thompson in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft, they already had two great linebackers in Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis. So they basically gave the two a baby backer to raise . . . or at least that’s how Mike Tomlin sees it.
Earlier in the week, the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach praised Thompson ahead of Sunday’s matchup for what has quietly been a very good season for the eighth-year defender. You’re going to love this, Panthers fans . . .
“Shaq Thompson, man, is a heady player,” he said on Wednesday. “A guy that’s very good in pass defense. Covers a lot of ground, particularly horizontal ground. It’s interesting to kinda watch him play. It looks like a guy who was raised by Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis. The guys that were big-time hook droppers and spot-drop zone defenders of their generation.
“The early portions of this guy’s career, man, he played behind those guys and learned a lot from them, I’m sure. Just in terms of watching him play—I see Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis in the way that he reads the quarterback, closes windows and plays in that space.”
Thompson, like Kuechly and Davis before him, has assumed a leadership role for the Carolina defense in recent years. And he’s done it smoothly—as the Panthers now boast one of the NFL’s top units here in 2022.
From an individual standpoint, the 28-year-old has recorded a team-high 98 combined tackles (just 16 off his career-high) and four passes defensed (one off his career-high) along with what’s already a career-high of 46 stops.
So we’re sure Shaq is making his Carolina dads proud.
