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Photo gallery: Panthers LS JJ Jansen through the years
On Monday, the Carolina Panthers announced a new one-year deal with longtime long snapper JJ Jansen. The franchise record holder for games played will soon be entering his 16th NFL season and 15th with the organization.
So, let’s take a look back to a few photos from the first 14 years of JJ.
Panthers longtime long snapper JJ Jansen will be back for the 2023 season.
JJ Jansen had so much fun during his first 15 years in the NFL that’s he coming back for another. No, really—he said it himself.
On Monday, the Carolina Panthers announced they’ve agreed to a one-year deal with their longtime long snapper. 2023 will mark the 37-year-old’s 16th pro season and 15th with the organization.
“I said last year that Year 15 was the most fun I’ve had in football,” Jansen said, per the team’s official release. “To get a chance to do it again here with these people is something I’m excited about.”
That year also saw Jansen break the franchise record for games played with 222, a mark previously held by kicker John Kasay. He finished the campaign at 226—a number he’ll get a chance to run up to 243 by season’s end.
As of now his 226 games rank 134th all time, alongside Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith and Paul Krause. A full 2023 campaign would put him in the 70th spot with Bill Romanowski.
Panthers P Johnny Hekker and LS JJ Jansen both finished second at their respective positions for the Players’ All-Pro Team voting.
2022 was one heck of a year for the Carolina Panthers’ special teams unit.
On Thursday, the NFL Players Association rolled out their first-ever Players’ All-Pro Team. The NFLPA had players across the league cast their votes for who they thought were the most impactful of their peers from this past season.
Now, unfortunately for the Panthers, they were not represented on the 1st Team. But they did have two guys that came awfully close—with punter Johnny Hekker and long snapper JJ Jansen finishing second at their respective positions.
Hekker had a record-breaker of a 2022 in his first campaign for Carolina. He landed 39 of his attempts inside the 20-yard line—which not only led the league, but set a new franchise mark—while averaging the third-most net yards per try (44.1).
Jansen set a pretty cool record of his own. He, with his Week 14 appearance in Seattle, recorded his 222nd game as a Panther—surpassing former kicker John Kasay for the team’s all-time tally.
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With his appearance in the first quarter of Sunday’s matchup with the Seahawks, Panthers LS JJ Jansen now holds the franchise record for games played.
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No one has put on a Carolina Panthers uniform as many times as JJ Jansen.
History was made in the first quarter of Sunday’s tilt with the Seattle Seahawks, as the 36-year-old recorded his 222nd NFL outing—all of which have come with the Panthers. That total officially pushes him past former kicker (and Carolina’s all-time leading scorer) John Kasay for the most games played in franchise history.
Jansen first broke into the league as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers back in 2008. But after the University of Notre Dame product failed to appear in a single game for Green Bay during that 2008 campaign, he was traded to Carolina for a conditional pick in the 2011 draft.
He’d go right on to grab the long snapper job and never let go, as those 222 games he’s played in since 2009 are also consecutive ones. Over that time, he’s been selected to one Pro Bowl (2013) and has been a part of three NFC South championships as well as an NFC championship.
Congratulations, JJ!
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The grass in 2022 has been greener for both Sam Darnold and Geno Smith—two Jets castoffs that have found new opportunities this seaosn.
After seeing one another eight times over a nine-year stretch that began in 2012, the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks will face off for the first time in three seasons on Sunday.
And although this matchup isn’t what it used to be, there are still a number of intriguing storylines to keep note of for this Week 14 contest. Let’s run through it.
Next weekend, Panthers longtime LS JJ Jansen will be all by himself at the top of this very list.
Barring any unforeseen setbacks, longtime Carolina Panthers long snapper JJ Jansen will break the franchise record for games played next weekend. But before he claims the No. 1 spot all for himself, let’s run down the organization’s top 10 leaders in the category.
Move over, John Kasay. You have some company.
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The Carolina Panthers have experienced a lot of change over the last 14 years. They’ve gone through two different owners, three different head coaches and 13 different starting quarterbacks.
But, there’s been one constant—JJ Jansen.
With his appearance in the first quarter of Week 12’s matchup against the Denver Broncos, the longtime long snapper registered his 221st game played for the Panthers. That mark now ties a franchise-record held by Jansen’s old teammate and former kicker John Kasay, who played in Carolina from 1995 to 2010.
Jansen broke into the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers in 2008. Almost a year later, the Packers traded the University of Notre Dame product—who didn’t play a single down in Green Bay—to the Panthers for a conditional 2011 draft pick.
He’d then earn Carolina’s long-snapping duties for the 2009 campaign and never let them go. Jansen has not missed an outing since coming over, playing in each of the franchise’s 220 regular-season contests over the last 14 years.
He’ll have his chance to lay complete claim to the franchise record on Dec. 11, when the Panthers return from their Week 13 bye to take on the Seattle Seahawks.
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Baker Mayfield was voted as a team captain in his first year with the Panthers.
On Thursday, the Carolina Panthers named their captains for the 2022 season.
Here are the eight men who were voted on by their teammates to, well, lead their teammates into the new campaign.
With no competition in sight, Panthers longtime long snapper JJ Jansen has a clear path to franchise history.
On Thursday, the Carolina Panthers waived 2021 sixth-round pick Thomas Fletcher—the only challenger to the team’s longtime long snapper JJ Jansen. But now that there is no competition, the 15th-year veteran is in line to snap a franchise record.
The 36-year-old Jansen, who arrived in Carolina through a trade with the Green Bay Packers way back in 2009, will enter the 2022 campaign having played 209 games for the organization. If he plays in just 13 more—bringing that total to a magic 222—then he’ll surpass the current Panthers record of 221 held by former kicker John Kasay.
As long as head coach Matt Rhule doesn’t decide to spice things up again with another challenger and Jansen remains healthy, that mark should be broken in Week 14. That Sunday will see the Panthers travel west to take on the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 11.
In addition to that impressive feat, Jansen has also gone over a decade without a botched snap—with that lone mistake coming in the 2010 season opener against the New York Giants. He was also selected to his first and only Pro Bowl appearance for his efforts in 2013.
So, yeah, Jansen has seen quite a bit here in Charlotte. He’s played for Rhule, Ron Rivera and John Fox, and he’s played on a 2-14 team and a 15-1 team.
And now, he’ll soon see some more history. But this time, it’ll be his own.
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The Panthers announced they’ve waived LS Thomas Fletcher, one of the team’s three sixth-round picks in 2021.
One of the silliest decisions the Carolina Panthers have made over the past few years now looks even sillier.
As announced by the team on Thursday afternoon, long snapper Thomas Fletcher has been waived. Fletcher was drafted with one of Carolina’s three sixth-round draft picks from a year ago.
The selection was, of course, perplexing to say the least at time (or at any time, for that matter). Not only was an actual piece of draft capital used on a long snapper, but the Panthers already had one of the game’s most reliable players at the position in then 14-year veteran JJ Jansen.
Heck, even Fletcher couldn’t believe it.
Well, the University of Alabama product would end up losing out to the trustworthy and respected Jansen in the long snapper battle last summer. He wraps up this tenure in Carolina having appeared in zero games for the organization.
Fletcher’s departure will now give way—once again—to Jansen and presumably open up a roster spot for the signing of cornerback Tae Hayes, as first reported by Mike Kaye of Pro Football Network.
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