Graham Gano, Kicker
Prior to last season, Graham Gano’s future with the Panthers was in jeopardy. In fact, Carolina drafted kicker Harrison Butker, but ended up trading him to the Kansas City Chiefs and sticking with Gano.
The Panthers are definitely glad they did. Gano converted 29 of 30 field-goal attempts in 2017, good for a percentage of 96.7.
This year, he has continued to get the job done, hitting all seven of his field-goal attempts and all 11 of his extra-point attempts. On Sunday, his 63-yard field goal in the final seconds was not only the longest of his career, but tied for the second-longest field goal in NFL history.
Before each contest, the Panthers introduce either their offensive starters or their defensive starters and allow them to run out of the tunnel. But on Sunday they introduced their special teams players for the first time ever, with those guys proceeding to make a major impact on the game.
In addition to Gano’s four field goals and three successful extra points, fellow special teamer Colin Jones recovered a muffed punt in the end zone for a TD to make it 14-3 early in the second quarter. So it might behoove the Panthers to introduce those players more often.
