Throughout his four seasons in the league, Shaq Thompson has progressively gotten better – his combined tackles have gone up, his usage has gone up and his knowledge has improved exponentially. But as he enters the final year of his rookie contract, 2019 is a pivotal season for Thompson, especially as the Panthers have moved to a new style of defense.
In previous years, the Panthers have run a 4-3 base defense; but this season, the team is going with more of a 3-4 set – that move was clear when the Panthers added veterans Gerald McCoy and Bruce Irvin and rookie edge rusher Brian Burns. Thompson will be asked to patrol the inside along with Pro Bowler Luke Kuechly. There has been a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but Thompson says it is all about repetition.
“This is my first time clearly in a 3-4,” Thompson said on Wednesday as he reported for training camp. “I was blessed enough to play behind Thomas [Davis] and [get] the knowledge from him from Luke [Kuechly] and Pep and all those other guys on the defensive side.”
“So it is time to put it to the test.”
Although Thompson has had his moments during his four years with the Panthers, his play hasn’t exactly been at a level of a former first-round pick.
In 14 games last season, Thompson registered 79 tackles for the Panthers, which was a career high – add that to 3.5 sacks, one pass defended and one forced fumble. However, Thompson would miss the Panthers final two games of the 2018 season as the Panthers placed him on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.
The positive for the Panthers is Thompson started to show even more promise last year when he was given a more prominent role due to the suspension of Thomas Davis, including his best game against the Ravens in Week 8 as Thompson recorded 13 tackles in 36-21 victory. Now, with Davis now playing with the Los Angeles Chargers, the Panthers will need Thompson to elevate his game to another level.
“I’m going to miss TD – that’s my guy since I’ve been here,” Thompson said. “I still talk to him and get pointers from him and stuff like that, so he will always be in my heart and he is my brother.”
Panthers head coach Ron Rivera likes what Thompson brings to the team’s new defensive scheme – especially his versatility to play multiple positions.
“One of the things we’ve seen in his development over the last couple of years is his versatility,” Rivera said during spring workouts. “Everything from having him line up in the nickel position covering receivers to doing some safety work for us – which you guys didn’t catch, which is good.”
Although he knows he needs to improve his game, Thompson says he believes the Panthers defense will be tough for opposing teams to deal with this upcoming year.
“It’s ridiculous, teams just gotta pick their poison, with who they want to double team and who they want to go single blocks with,” Thompson said during OTAs. “You’ve got Luke [and] as people gotta worry [a lot] about Luke, I’m like the guy you gotta worry about a little bit. And you have Bruce [Irvin], Mario [Addison], Brian Burns, Christian Miller, Marquis Haynes and all of those guys.”
“I mean, it sounds good on paper – it’s a lot – but we’ve just got to put it together.”
After getting off to a 6-2 start in their first eight games, the Panthers finished 1-7 during the second half of the season as the team missed the playoffs a year after finishing with a 11-5 record. Obviously, the season didn’t end the way Carolina would have liked. Although it is a brand new year, Thompson says the team hasn’t forgotten the bitter taste from 2018 – especially after the season was highlighted for a national audience on Amazon’s All or Nothing.
“We had a little backstretch that didn’t work out for us,” Thompson said. “But I think everybody, from watching what we went through and the feeling of that, everybody is going to use that as motivation and fire and energy just to make this season even better because we know the feeling and we didn’t like the feeling. The good thing is we all stuck together – it wasn’t like anyone was crying about it.”
Thompson has expressed a desire to remain with the Panthers after this season. But ultimately, it will come down to how he plays and fits into the Panthers new defensive scheme in 2019. With Davis now on the West Coast, Thompson will have a tremendous opportunity to prove he can become a focal point in the Panthers defense – now it’s up to him to seize it.
“He’s waited patiently for some time to have this opportunity,” said Kuechly about his younger counterpart in the linebacking corps. “The team decided now is his time.”
