CHARLOTTE – For four seasons, Jon Beason ranked among the most productive linebackers in the NFL.

Injuries, the emergence of Luke Kuechly and the reemergence of Thomas Davis slowed the roll of the Panthers' 2007 first-round draft choice, but he believed he could recapture his form if he could play more snaps.

Beason got that chance early in the 2013 season, when the Panthers traded him to the New York Giants.

What Beason never really got was the chance to say goodbye.

"This is my first time back since literally the day I found out I was getting traded," said Beason, who attended Carolina's organized team activity Thursday. "I didn't get the opportunity to see anybody or talk to a lot of guys because you get traded, you pack a suitcase and you're gone the next day.

"But this was a good time to come back. It's a good feeling. It's nice to see that a lot of things haven't changed – the smell of the grass, the talk in the locker room."

Beason, who retired two years ago after three injury-filled seasons with the Giants, was a strong voice with a game to match throughout his time with the Panthers. He recorded an astounding 650 tackles based on coaches' film review over his first four seasons (Kuechly had 681 over his first four) and ranked in the top four in the entire league in tackles each of his first three seasons.

But in the opener his fifth season, in 2011, Beason tore his Achilles.

He was never quite the same player. Shoulder and knee injuries sidelined him four games into 2012 - Kuechly's rookie year – and he played 21 games over his final three NFL seasons, all but three of them with the Giants to wrap up a nine-year career.

"The fact that I was able to play for the amount of time I was, thank God for those moments," said Beason, now 33. "At the NFL Combine in 2007, a lot of teams asked me, 'Hey, how long do you think you're going to play?' I said eight years. They'd say, 'Oh, everybody says they're going to play 15 years. Why eight?'

"I said, 'If you play linebacker the way you're supposed to play it, you probably won't last longer than eight years.' That's something I hang my hat on. Whether it was how I played, how I prepared or how I attacked my rehab, I left it all on the field. I have no regrets. I sleep well. I don't even dream about it anymore."