Jeremy Chinn absorbed the lessons of Panthers' legends

[Sir Purr]

"When you come in here, you see what these guys mean to the organization," Chinn said of the retiring legends. "But just to see what these guys mean to the organization, it's inspiring to me. It's encouraging to see the guys who built this team to what it was, and the level they brought it to."


Chinn gets compared to Davis a lot, primarily because of the position-less nature of their arrivals to the NFL.


Davis was a safety at Georgia who could run and hit, but bounced around a bit before settling into a job at linebacker and making it his own. Chinn was a safety at Southern Illinois, and became a linebacker out of a bit of necessity, and was lining up all over the field by the end of the season.


For Panthers defensive run game coordinator Al Holcomb, it wasn't a surprise to see Chinn in the audience for the event. Holcomb coached Davis, and helped tutor Chinn through a productive rookie year, so Holcomb sees several layers of similarities between them.


"It didn't surprise me in the least to see Jeremy there," he said. "He's a team guy, just like TD was for all those years.


"He's a guy who cares about his teammates, but for a young guy, he also has a real respect for the history of the game."


Holcomb laughed, and admitted that he has referred to Davis a lot in his education of Chinn — again, the football similarities are hard to miss. But it doesn't stop with the fact they play multiple positions, or have a knack for making impact plays.


"There are some personality differences," Holcomb said. "But they're both super-competitive people who want to prove it to people every day.


"They both have a distinct leadership quality about them. Thomas grew into his over time, and really became one of the vocal people in that locker room. Jeremy's trying to learn right now, to see where he fits in."