Player
Shaq Thompson
LB · Bills
Shaq Thompson: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
11 seasons in: 493 tackles, 13 sacks, 62 TFLs — a Panthers-era pillar now reinvented in Buffalo at age 31.
TrendThompson by season (regular season)
| Season | Team | Tackles | TFL | Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | CAR | 33 | 4 | 1.0 |
| 2016 | CAR | 39 | 4 | 0.0 |
| 2017 | CAR | 47 | 6 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | CAR | 48 | 4 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | CAR | 73 | 11 | 3.0 |
| 2020 | CAR | 63 | 6 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | CAR | 58 | 9 | 2.0 |
| 2022 | CAR | 66 | 8 | 0.5 |
| 2023 | CAR | 5 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | CAR | 18 | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2025 | BUF | 43 | 8 | 1.0 |
Thompson spent the first ten seasons of his career in Carolina — the 2015 first-round pick (#25 overall) stayed long enough to outlast Cam, Rivera, Wilks, Rhule, McCown and Tepper coffee table changes. His 2019 (73 tackles, 11 TFL) was the volume peak.
Two lost seasons (2023: 5 tackles, broken leg; 2024: 18 tackles, Achilles tear) made him a Carolina cap casualty in 2025. Buffalo signed him and is getting 43 tackles, 8 TFL, 1 sack through the season — the most disruptive he's been in four years.
Tackles per season
| Season | Tackles |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 33 |
| 2016 | 39 |
| 2017 | 47 |
| 2018 | 48 |
| 2019 | 73 |
| 2020 | 63 |
| 2021 | 58 |
| 2022 | 66 |
| 2023 | 5 |
| 2024 | 18 |
| 2025 | 43 |
His TFL pace in BUF (8 in a partial season) already exceeds his last 3 Panthers years combined.
MilestoneThompson's 2023-24 combined Panthers TFL total: 2. His 2025 Bills TFL total: 8. The Buffalo defensive line is doing real lifting in front of him — Greg Rousseau, Ed Oliver, DaQuan Jones — and Thompson's read-and-shoot game has come back in a scheme that lets him stay clean.
For the 11-year career, 62 TFL ranks among the top stack-LB totals from his draft class, even with two of the last three seasons effectively lost to injury.
The 2018 stat line — 3.5 sacks, 6 QB hits — was the most pass-rush production of any LB season in his career.
AnomalyThompson pass-rush activity
| Season | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2.0 | 6 | 6 |
| 2018 | 3.5 | 6 | 4 |
| 2019 | 3.0 | 4 | 11 |
| 2021 | 2.0 | 6 | 9 |
Across 11 seasons, Thompson's only 3+ sack year was 2018 (3.5 sacks, 6 QB hits) under Ron Rivera in Carolina's blitz-heavy scheme. The 2019 follow-up was an even bigger overall year (73 tackles, 11 TFL, 3 sacks), but the pure pass-rush rate has come down ever since the scheme shifted away from his green-dot role.
Career pass-rush totals: 13 sacks, 34 QB hits, 62 TFL — a hybrid LB profile that never quite became a true edge but stayed disruptive over a decade.
4 forced fumbles, 4 fumble recoveries — Thompson has put a hand on 8 takeaways across his career.
RareAcross his 11-year career, Thompson has 5 forced fumbles and 4 fumble recoveries — 9 separate takeaway events directly credited to him in the play participants log. He's never picked off a pass per this dataset, but the strip-and-recover game has shown up at a steady clip.
The 2020 Panthers year — 2 FF, 1 FR — was his single-season takeaway peak.
#25 overall in 2015 — same draft class as Bud Dupree, Eric Kendricks, Stephone Anthony.
ComparisonThompson was drafted #25 overall in 2015 out of Washington — a hybrid safety/LB converted by Carolina into a base linebacker. From that draft's LB class, he's still on a roster in 2025 alongside Eric Kendricks and Bud Dupree — most of the others (Stephone Anthony, Denzel Perryman... wait, Perryman's still around too) faded out years ago.
The staying power is the headline: 493 career tackles, 11 seasons, an entire Carolina rebuild lived through, and now a contributing role on the Bills defense at 31.
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