Luke Kuechly is irreplaceable. For the time being, the Panthers will have to get by with Shaq Thompson and Tahir Whitehead. Nobody will be able to live up to the high standard that Kuechly set at linebacker, though.
As if you needed any more proof that Kuechly was special, Pro Football Focus has completed their list of the top 101 best players of the last decade and Kuechly wound up coming in at No. 10.
“PFF’s work deals a lot in percentiles, ranking players against the rest of their peers according to what percentage of them they are above or better than. For his career, Luke Kuechly effectively became the 100th percentile. He had a run of five seasons with an overall PFF grade above 90.0, and his 2015 season is the highest single-season grade PFF gave to a linebacker over the decade. For his career, Kuechly allowed a passer rating of just 86.0 when targeted in coverage, around 20 points lower than the average pass that targets a linebacker.”
Kuechly’s top competitor during his career was Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner, who was drafted the same year. They were linked and generally considered the top two off-ball linebackers of this era. Wagner was only ranked No. 39 on PFF’s list, though.
A few other former Carolina players also made the cut.
Wide receiver Steve Smith was No. 90, tight end Greg Olsen was No. 81 and left tackle Jordan Gross came in at No. 73. Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy played most of the last decade with the Buccaneers, but he spent last season with the Panthers and was ranked one spot ahead of Gross. Cornerback Charles Tillman, who played for the 2015 team was No. 88.
One very notable name that did not make the list? Quarterback Cam Newton – whose game was always a bit underrated by PFF’s models in our opinion.
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