On most teams, the Pro Bowl outside linebacker isn’t on the hands team.
But the Panthers aren’t most teams, and Thomas Davis isn’t most outside linebackers.
The Panthers put their most reliable player in their most precarious spot, and Davis delivered by grabbing the late onside kick, and preventing Seattle from creating another Brandon Bostick in this year’s playoffs.
“It definitely felt good to know they trust me enough to put me there,” Davis said, admitting that the topic of Green Bay’s collapse in last year’s NFC Championship game was fresh on their minds on the field. But despite that pressure, Davis was able to grab the last-ditch Seahawks kick, secure it and send the Panthers to the NFC Championship Game.
The 32-year-old linebacker has been lobbying for a chance, and even though teammates like to tease him about it, they also trust him. The guy’s fought through three torn ACLs, so the pressure of a single play in any game isn’t going to be too much for him. Quarterback Cam Newton called him “Charlotte’s sweetheart,” but perhaps never more so than after he secured the playoff win.
“That’s a position for a guy that’s not scared,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “It’s a position for a guy who will do anything for his team, will put in all the hours, all the work, do anything it takes to get a win. Thomas is a guy who checks off all those boxes.
“I think it’s just a statement about who he is, as a football player or more as a person.”
And while it might not be conventional to put a linebacker there instead of a receiver or a tight end, the Panthers have come to learn there aren’t many spots they can put Thomas Davis in that are too much for him.