The Carolina Panthers started 2021 with a scintillating 3-0 record, getting up the hopes of their fan base and making quarterback Sam Darnold seem like the league’s latest redemption story. However, two of those wins were very misleading, because they came against the dreadful Jets and Texans. The home win over the Saints was a legitimate W, but after that start, the Panthers would only win a total of two more games, going 5-12. This time around, the Panthers have added quarterback Baker Mayfield – but have given up their top wide receiver, A.J. Brown. Should you bank on improvement by the Panthers in your NFL betting? Let’s take a closer look.
NFL News: What Are the Odds? Will the Carolina Panthers Improve This Season?
The defense in 2021 was actually pretty good, ranking second in the league in yards permitted. However, they were the third-worst offense in the same metric. They sent a second-round pick to the Jets for Darnold, but he posted the third-worst rating in the NFL using PFF’s metrics. They added Stephon Gilmore at the deadline, but that only got them from three wins to five.
On offense, things fell apart on a weekly basis. Christian McCaffrey had ANOTHER season-ending injury. They were up on Philadelphia, 15-3, but ended up losing that game, even though Jalen Hurts had not yet figured out the keys to running the Eagles’ offense. The Eagles would later put things together and snag a wild card, thanks in part to this early win over a hapless Carolina team.
The Panthers did send their offensive coordinator packing midway through the season, but nothing got better. They did snag Cam Newton off the retread heap and watched him turn back the clock for one game, leading the Panthers to a win in Arizona. Of course, the Kliff Kingsbury-Kyler Murray Cardinals have fallen off the table after Halloween each of the past two seasons, so the win wasn’t all that surprising, but then things reverted to normal.
Matt Rhule, who started his rise in the ranks of football coaching with the Temple Owls before going to Baylor and winning with Art Briles’ players and hoodwinking an NFL team into hiring him, is likely in his last season in a pro position. In a recent press conference, he uttered this confusing statement: “I believe it’s 1000% working. I just know one can see it and I apologize. As I tell our team all the time, it took Jay-Z seven years. He had to start his own agency to become famous, to become an overnight sensation. It takes time.”
The problem is that no NFL team will wait seven years for a coach to turn the team around. Ben McAdoo is the team’s new offensive coordinator – the same one who trashed Baker Mayfield ahead of the 2018 draft. Now that Mayfield is the closest thing the Panthers have to an NFL-ready quarterback in camp, though, McAdoo is no longer concerned about things like Mayfield’s height or hand size. If Mayfield and Darnold don’t work out, the team did draft Matt Corral out of Ole Miss. He might have been the best SEC quarterback not named Bryce Young last year. No matter who is quarterback, the O-line will be suspect despite the addition of Bradley Bozeman and Austin Corbett.
Then there’s the rest of the NFC South. Jameis Winston is back from his ACL injury, and Michael Thomas returns as well, so the New Orleans Saints should contend in this division. Tom Brady has a loaded roster around him in Tampa Bay. Atlanta is still mired in a rebuild, but I’m curious to see what Marcus Mariota still has in the tank. So the division could be a 1-5 or 0-6 adventure for the Panthers. Outside the division, the Panthers play the AFC North, the NFC West and the Denver Broncos. Other than the Seattle Seahawks and the Week 1 game against Cleveland, that’s seven grueling matchups. So I don’t expect to see the Panthers improve on last year’s five-win total.
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