Luke Kuechly adds Netflix deal to Panthers Radio Network duties

Jul 28, 2026 at 04:59 PM

Darin Gantt

CHARLOTTE — The world is beginning to learn what Panthers fans have known for years — the answer to any problem in life is "More Luke Kuechly."

Kuechly was reported as the lead analyst for Netflix's streaming package of games this year, according to The Athletic.

He'll work four games alongside play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle, but will still do a regular allotment of 12 games as an analyst for the Panthers Radio Network.

His Netflix debut will be Thursday, Sept. 10 in Australia, where he'll call the 49ers-Rams game.

But then he'll be right back home on Sunday, Sept. 13 in Bank of America Stadium for this year's home opener against the Bears.

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Since joining the Panthers Radio Network in 2022, Kuechly has done between eight and 16 games a season.

(He's taking off a week for a family Christmas gathering on Dec. 20 against the Bengals, and has a couple of hunting trips scheduled earlier in the fall. Netflix has him working on Wednesday, Nov. 25 in Los Angeles, but he'll be both the Panthers games on either side of it, here against Baltimore and at Tampa Bay. Kuechly will also have Dec. 25 and a Week 18 game for Netflix. But then, he's available again if the Panthers make the playoffs.)

And, when he's wrapped up his Pro Football Hall of Fame duties in a few weeks, he'll return to the JJ and Luke Podcast as well.

He generally works alongside Hall of Honor quarterback Jake Delhomme, but the Panthers also have a deep bench with longtime voice Jim Szoke, Kurt Coleman, and Jonathan Stewart.

While flying back from Melbourne might leave him a bit jet-lagged, Delhomme knows exactly what he's going to get out of his partner when he's here for the home opener.

"You know he's going to be prepared," Delhomme said. "I mean, come on."

In fact, this was a bit of an inside joke between the two. When Delhomme started broadcasting for the team in 2019, then-announcer Mick Mixon told him not to overthink game prep as it pertained to the individual opponents; that they should simply try to have a conversation about the game and add his perspective.

Instead, Delhomme watched every game of the Rams from the previous year — all 19 of them.

"And in the middle of the first quarter, I said to myself, I cannot believe I wasted all that time because it's radio," Delhomme laughed. "I couldn't believe it.

"So when Luke was doing it a few years later, I said, Luke, let me tell you, give you a piece of advice. I told him exactly what I did, and he was like, 'OK, OK, good to know, good to know.'"

So in 2022, Kuechly's debut came in Cleveland, when Baker Mayfield was the Panthers' starting quarterback.

"I said, 'hey, you took some notes?'" Delhomme said.

"Yeah, I think so," Kuechly replied.

"And I had an index card in my back pocket, and I had 3 points of the game that I wrote down," Delhomme said. "And I showed it to him, and he goes, 'That's your notes?'

"I said, 'Let me see yours?' And he pulled out a manila folder; he had a typed paragraph on every player on the Browns football team. He had scouted every single one of them. And I said, 'I knew that, you didn't listen.'

"He goes, 'Well, I just wanted to make sure.'"

And friends, Kuechly was prepared, whether he referred to those notes or not.

"That's just him, man," Delhomme laughed. "He just gets it, he sees it. And I think the thing that I enjoy most about doing it with him, all we care about is that when you cut us, we bleed Process Blue. We just want us to win by any means necessary.

"And hopefully, the fans feel that, and I think they do in our voices. Like, it hurts when we lose, and we're super excited when we win. And he's so passionate about it because, one, he was Mr. Charlotte."

Of course, there is more to prepping than just rolling out his encyclopedic memory, and executive producer David Langton said he's always been impressed — among other things — at the way Kuechly works to get better at the finer points of calling a game.

"What I always tell the guys is you should prepare as if the coach turns around in the third quarter and points and says I need you to come in the game, that you would feel comfortable going in the game," Langton said. "That should be your preparation. It's as if I'm going to play today. So those guys take that very seriously, and they do that. They come in, and they're prepared as if they're going to play.

"It's got to be second nature whether it's Jordan (Gross), whether it's Jake, whether it's Luke, to overprepare like that to start with. I mean, it's part of the fun. It's part of the fun of doing it is preparing for it. And then once you get in there and things start to happen in front of you, you don't have to think. You're just reacting like you were when you were playing, right?"

Kuechly's a good teammate for the radio crew (including helping pack equipment postgame and push the large crate down to the truck)

Langton was convinced that Kuechly was good at this when he called his shot on some formation-specific things the offense was going to do, depending on how the Raiders lined up.

"He just does it," Langton said. "The one thing I always tell Luke is 'Make me smarter.' I want to watch this game, and I want you to give me something that I can then go to the bar after the game and sit with a bunch of dudes and say this is what's going to happen because Luke taught me that, and that's what he does is he makes me smarter."

And he's going to continue to do that for the fanbase that loves him most this year, while spreading his wings worldwide.

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Carolina Panthers Hall of Fame Enshrinee, Luke Kuechly visits the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Friday, April. 17, 2026 in Canton, OH.