The Carolina Panthers and Shaq Thompson have agreed to a four-year, $54.2 million contract extension. The deal has $28 million in guaranteed money.

"It means everything," Thompson told Panthers.com. "What this organization has done for me and my family, it's just tremendous. Now it's time to go to Atlanta and go get this game.

"This organization really waited to see what I could become," he added. "They understood when I was a rookie that I could come in and learn behind TD [Thomas Davis] and Luke [Kuechly] and A.J. [Klein]. That allowed me to learn the game and develop a lot more. From college to the NFL -- those first two years for me everything was happening really fast. Now the game has slowed down for me. They allowed me to learn and develop. It's a blessing."