Luke Kuechly is the next link in the Panthers’ legendary linebacker lineage

And Saturday afternoon, when Luke Kuechly places his bust on the wall of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he’ll be just a few steps away from Sam Mills. And in that small space, you’ll be able to feel the history of a franchise and the heartbeat of their teams.

“How the identity formed is you obviously, you have a young team, a young franchise, and young franchises are created by impact players,” said legendary Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith. “And I don’t care what you say about our offense. When you talk about the Carolina Panthers, it starts with defense, man, and it starts with Sam, and it just goes on from there. Yeah, they had a few, some pretty decent players. They had a quarterback who won the MVP, right? They had a running back that was rookie of the year, yeah, had a receiver who was OK.

“But man, the linebacker corps, the lineage of the linebackers, when you talk about the Carolina Panthers, one, it starts with Sam Mills, and there’s a laundry list of hell-of-a-football-players. And the best part, a lot of them were coached by Sam somehow, some way touched, and that’s just, I don’t care what people say, man, you just can’t get around what was supposed to be, right?”