Bills LB Shaq Thompson is asked about the Panthers and the Carolina-to-Buffalo pipeline

USA Today

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Bills LB Shaq Thompson is asked about the Panthers and the Carolina-to-Buffalo pipeline
Carolina Panthers football is the only thing linebacker Shaq Thompson has ever known over the entirety of his 10-year NFL career. But now he's shuffling off to Buffalo, where he'll have to learn a different culture under a few familiar faces.
Thompson, who was not brought back by the Panthers for an 11th season, officially signed with the Buffalo Bills on Monday. The 31-year-old veteran spoke with reporters shortly following the announcement, and explained how he found himself in Orchard Park, N.Y.
"Man . . . got released from Carolina—that's the first step," Thompson said jokingly. "But just stayed in connection with [Sean] McDermott, with [Brandon] Beane, with Al Holcomb. Just staying in connection with them, updating them just on surgeries and rehabs and where I'm at and stuff like that. I've been there with them in 2015, in Carolina. So kinda just always had that bond there."
Carolina selected Thompson in the first round of the 2015 draft. At the time, Beane was their assistant general manager, McDermott was their defensive coordinator and Holcomb was their linebackers coach.
Thompson won't be the first Panther to migrate up north. In fact, he's just the latest transplant to go through the famous Carolina-to-Buffalo pipeline—joining the likes of former teammates Mike Tolbert, Kelvin Benjamin, Corey Brown, Joe Webb, Daryl Williams, Greg Van Roten, Star Lotulelei, Vernon Butler, Mario Addison, Efe Obada, A.J. Klein, Josh Norman, Captain Munnerlyn, Daryl Worley, Leonard Johnson, Kurt Coleman and more.
So Thompson, in what was probably the best question of his presser, was asked if players talk to each other about the running joke that is "Carolina North."
"Yeah, for sure," he replied with a smile. "And there's other multiple teams that also kinda allude to that as well. But there's a lot of guys that came from Carolina, played here and they loved it. Or vice versa—guys from up there come down here and we talk about whatever. Because when people come from a different team, you wanna know how the organization is, what runs different, how do you guys win the games, what's the team environment, what's the team chemistry."
That pipeline will be revisited later this year, when Thompson and the Bills face off against the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Week 8.
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