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CANTON, Ohio — Luke Kuechly will become the first member of the Carolina Panthers’ 2015 Super Bowl team to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon.
Kuechly also made a case for two offensive stars from that team — which started the season 14-0 — joining him in Canton someday. Hall voters soon will weigh in on Cam Newton, the MVP-winning quarterback whose first year of eligibility is next year.
During Kuechly’s media availability Thursday, he talked about the larger-than-life nature of a quarterback who stood 6 feet 5 and weighed 245 pounds.
“When Cam was on the field, he was the best player on the field. He was the biggest, most physically dominant person on the field,” Kuechly said.
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Though NFC opponents — especially the Panthers’ divisional rivals — became accustomed to Newton’s stature, Kuechly said that was not the case when the Panthers played out of conference.
“When you would go play AFC teams … and walk out for the coin toss, you could see the faces of the guys walking out and, ‘Oh, my God, he’s gigantic,’” said Kuechly, noting that Newton would wear smaller “shells” during practice rather than traditional shoulder pads.
“The only time he really had his pads on would be during games. He wore these big rib protectors. He had these foam shin guards,” Kuechly said, widening his arms. “He was the biggest person on the field, and then he was dominant. He could run past guys, through guys, around guys, jump over guys. He could throw the ball anywhere on the field. And when he was at his best, he was the best player on the field at all times.”
Newton is already represented in the Hall of Fame. His cleats from the 2015 NFC Championship Game, along with the draft card the Panthers used to select him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft are on display.
Here is the display with Cam Newton’s cleats from the 2015 NFC Championship Game and the the Panthers’ draft card when they took him No. 1 overall in 2010. (Joseph Person / The Athletic)
In response to a question about Newton’s candidacy, Kuechly also had high praise for Greg Olsen, who became the first tight end in NFL history with three consecutive, 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 2014 to 2016.
“If I’m a team and I’m defending the Carolina Panthers, there’s two guys that you have to worry about. First of all, it’s Greg Olsen because he can do everything,” Kuechly said. “He can line up in the slot. He can put his hand in the ground. He can block anyone. He can run receiver routes — frontside, backside, in the slot.”
Olsen, who retired after the 2020 season, did not make the cut of semifinalists this year in his first year on the ballot. (Steve Smith was a finalist in 2025 but did not make the final 15 this year.)
“When you specifically have to game plan for guys, I think that tells the story,” added Kuechly, the seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker who coaches a Charlotte, N.C., middle school football team with Olsen. “How do we get an extra guy in the box? How do we get a free runner at Cam? How do we cloud his vision so he can’t throw the ball to Greg? I think that kind of speaks for itself.”
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