2026 Season Opener Countdown: 55 Days Remaining

Here at Cat Scratch Reader we have counted down the final 100 days leading up to the Carolina Panthers season opener for at least the past ten years. We’ve always done this by highlighting the current player on the roster whose jersey number matches the day on the countdown. This year, we decided to change that up a bit by counting down our own list of the Top 100 Panthers of all time. This does not correspond to jersey number, does not need to be somebody who wore a jersey, and will in no way be controversial.

#55. Jeremy Chinn

Panthers stats: 54 games, 50 starts, 324 tackles, 4.0 sacks, 2 interceptions

Career stats: 86 games, 82 starts, 555 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 3 interceptions

For many Panthers fans, Jeremy Chinn will always feel like the one that got away.

Carolina selected the Southern Illinois product in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft and from the outset it looked like they struck gold. As a rookie he started all 15 games in which he played and racked up 117 tackles. But it wasn’t just the quantity of tackles, it was the violence that accompanied them. Despite being a rookie from a small-time college program, Chinn punished opposing players who ventured into his realm.

The most amazing moment from his rookie season was becoming the first player in NFL history to return two fumbles for touchdowns on back-to-back plays.

As a result of his stellar play he finished No. 2 in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting behind Chase Young. It appeared back then the Panthers had found a long-term impact player.

But what was also apparent was that Chinn was a “tweener” in that he wasn’t quite big enough to play linebacker full time, but he also didn’t quite have the coverage skills to play a true safety position. But the Panthers played to his strengths and he became a hard-hitting strong safety who often snuck up into the box as an excellent run stopper, but he also made Panthers fans nervous when he dropped into coverage.

Chinn’s second season with the Panthers played out like his first. He had 107 tackles with a sack and five passes defended.

In 2022, Chinn’s third season, he missed six games due to a hamstring injury but over 11 starts he put up 70 tackles, another sack, and seven passes defended.

And it was in 2022 when the wheels started coming off for Jeremy Chinn in Carolina due to a host of absurd coaching changes and questionable defensive schemes. Matt Rhule was fired five games into the 2022 season and was replaced by interim head coach Steve Wilks. In 2023, Chinn’s fourth and final season in Carolina, the Panthers hired Frank Reich, fired him after 11 games, then appointed Chris Tabor as interim coach.

In that tumultuous 2023 season, the final year of Chinn’s rookie contract, coach Reich and his staff deemed Chinn a “hybrid” player who didn’t fit their defensive...