There are only 77 days left until the Carolina Panthers kick off the 2019 season, so today we’re going to take a closer look at No. 77 on the Panthers’ roster — guard Kitt O’Brien.
Kitt O’Brien, Guard
Bio
Height: 6’5”
Weight: 325 lbs
Age: 29
College: Ball State
Experience: 1 year
When Miley Cyrus recorded “The Climb” she may have had a picture of Kitt O’Brien taped to her music stand. At age 29 the former Ball State offensive lineman has never appeared in an NFL game but continues to grind away, chasing his professional dream.
Per his Panthers profile, O’Brien was a three-year starter at Ball State who went undrafted in 2013. To put things in perspective, that was the same year the Panthers drafted Start Lotulelei, which feels like a football lifetime ago. O’Brien spent the next three years (2013-2015) honing his craft in the Arena Football League.
In both 2015 and 2016 O’Brien showed enough potential to become an on-again, off-again member of the Indianapolis Colts practice squad. After being waived by the Colts he signed with the Cleveland Browns during the 2017 offseason but was released during roster cutdowns. O’Brien then spent 2019 as a member of the Birmingham Iron of the Alliance of American Football before the AAF’s spectacular implosion.
The good news for O’Brien (and the bad news for Panthers fans) is Carolina is fairly thin at guard. With a strong camp, O’Brien should have as good of a shot at making the roster as any other unproven journeymen he’s competing against. His age at 29 may work against him a bit, but when competing for backup spots productivity usually trumps age.
On a lighter note, according to the NFL’s database he’s the only player in NFL history with the first name Kitt, so that’s something. And if he makes the Panthers roster we can have all sorts of fun making memes of Kitt O’Brien that cross over with the car K.I.T.T from the classic TV show Knight Rider.