The preseason games are done. The 53-man rosters are set.
Carolina Panthers football is back.
I love football and get excited every year it comes around.
Through the good and bad, I enjoy every second of it. And let’s face it, there has been a lot of bad football from the Panthers since the second half of 2018.
That changed a bit in 2025 as the Panthers won the division with a losing record. There were some highs, such as beating Green Bay, Dallas, Los Angeles and sweeping Atlanta.
But then there were the lows of getting swept by the Saints and not securing the division outright in Week 18.
What does the 2026 season have in store for us?
I do believe that this will be their ninth consecutive losing season. This team will be down two starting tackles (Ekwonu, Moton) to start the season and is starting a new center.
Combine that with the other season ending injuries to Chris Brazzell and Nic Scourton, the Panthers will have to overcome a lot.
If the Panthers want to avoid a ninth consecutive losing season, they cannot come out flat to start the season as they have since Bryce Young took the reins in 2023.
At times, Young will make you say wow. He’ll also make you pull out your hair. Inconsistency has been his calling card since he entered the league.
Young’s inconsistency is the big reason I do not think this team will make it back to the playoffs, despite the Special Officer Doofy level of comedy the NFC South offers in its current state.
I would love nothing more than to be absolutely wrong and see Young put it all together in year four. He handled himself like a pro, especially after he was benched after a disastrous two game start to the 2024 season. He didn’t complain publicly or have a team of lackeys feed the so called NFL insiders a bunch of nonsense about being unhappy.
Until I see him play consistently week to week, it’s hard to envision the ceiling for this team being anything higher than a division championship and possibly a playoff win. I don’t think the Panthers should offer him any type of extension unless he can put it together this season.
Despite what I think, the team clearly believes in him and that’s what matters.
If the Panthers are going to end this string of consecutive losing seasons, they cannot come out flat like they have the last three seasons.
I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating:
Seven, three, three, zero, three and three.
Those figures represent the number of points the Panthers scored in first half of weeks 1 and 2 since Bryce Young’s rookie season in 2023.
They finished each of those games with the following point totals: 10, 17, 10, 3, 10 and 22.
Yes, the Panthers have scored exactly 10 points in each of their last three season openers.
Not surprisingly, the Panthers lost all six games. They haven’t won a game in week 1 or 2 since 2021, when they started 3-0 and ultimately cratered to a 5-12 record under Matt Rhule.
Ten points isn’t going to beat the Chicago Bears in week one. While they overcame the 0-2 start last season, the odds of overcoming it again with this schedule would not be high.
I think this ends up a 5-12, 6-11 type team for 2026. I hope I’m wrong but that’s just my gut feeling.
No matter what happens, I’ll be there for the ride.
Panther predictions
The 2026 Carolina Panthers will finish 5-12. It pains me to say that but the Panthers were fortunate to win so many close games in 2025.
Seven of their eight victories were by one possession. Six were by three points or less. The outlier of the group was the 30-0 victory against the Falcons in week 3.The Panthers lost six of their nine games by double digits, four of those by 14 or more. The others were lost by two, three and five points.
Winning close games typically regresses one year to the next. I think that’ll be the case this season.Young will throw for more than 3,700 yards.
Princely Umanmielen and Jaelan Phillips will combine for 20 sacks.
Jonathon Brooks will run for 1,000 yards. His true breakout will come in 2027.
Ja’Tavion Sanders will be traded before the deadline in November.
Mitchell Evans will catch six touchdowns.
Leftover Panthers preseason thought
Final roster cuts tell a story for every organization in the NFL.
In the case of the Panthers, the final cuts to get to 53 players reminded me of former General Manager Scott Fitterer’s disastrous tenure.
Young is the lone player remaining on the active roster from the Panthers 2023 draft class after they cut fourth round pick Chandler Zavala.
Zavala was signed to the practice squad after going unclaimed on waivers. However, it’s hard to envision him getting moved up to the main roster unless a nightmare scenario develops for the interior offensive line.
No general manager is perfect. It’s a ridiculously hard job. Nobody hits on every pick. But you cannot catastrophically whiff consecutive drafts, especially when you push your chips all-in to move up to take a quarterback at the No. 1 spot.
Fitterer’s 2021 draft produced solid starters in Jaycee Horn, Tommy Tremble and Chuba Hubbard. The 2022 draft resulted in Ikem Ekwonu at No. 6 and Cade Mays (now with the Detroit Lions) in round six, but whiffs everywhere else. Clearly, everybody remembers what happened in 2023 and what was given up to take Young. The Panthers host the results of that trade to open the season.
Fitterer’s personnel misevaluations and negligence with future draft capital is a primary reason why the Panthers haven’t had a winning record post Cam Newton.
That leads us to the current general manager of the Panthers, Dan Morgan.
Morgan cut linebacker Trevin Wallace. Wallace was a third round pick in Morgan’s first draft, where he dealt from the fallout of the worst season in Panthers history.
This is a big season for those that remain from the 2024 draft class. All eyes are on Xavier Legette and Jonathon Brooks.
Morgan made major changes following that draft to the scouting department following that draft. Early returns on the 2025 class seem promising. We’ll see if the changes they made continue to pay dividends in 2026.
The Non AI NFL season predictions
Here is how I think things will shake out across the NFL in 2026. There’s a solid chance that most of these predictions will be wrong. Playoff teams will be bolded.
NFC South predicted order of finish
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
New Orleans Saints
Carolina Panthers
Atlanta Falcons
NFC East predicted order of finish
Dallas Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
New York Giants
Washington Commanders
NFC North predicted order of finish
Detroit Lions
Minnesota Vikings
Green Bay Packers
Chicago Bears
NFC West predicted order of finish
Los Angeles Rams
Seattle Seahawks
San Francisco 49ers
Arizona Cardinals
AFC EAST predicted order of finish
Buffalo Bills
New England Patriots
New York Jets
Miami Dolphins
AFC North predicted order of finish
Cincinnati Bengals
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns
AFC South predicted order of finish
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
AFC West predicted order of finish
Los Angeles Chargers
Kansas City Chiefs
Denver Broncos
Las Vegas Raiders
SUPER BOWL LXI prediction: Bengals over Rams
Regular season MVP: Joe Burrow
“With the first pick in the 2027 NFL Draft”: Arizona Cardinals