Panthers Post-Draft Win-Loss Prediction

Now that the 2020 NFL Draft is officially over and teams have polished up their rosters with undrafted free agents and several remaining free agents, there is a good sense of what team’s rosters will look like for the upcoming NFL season. The Carolina Panthers loaded up with an abundance of defensive talent last week, using all seven of their draft picks to select defensive players while adding some depth to their offensive line by signing veteran free agent guard Michael Schofield.

Sports Illustrated recently came out with their post-draft power rankings, where they placed the Panthers at No. 30. This was largely due to the veteran players Carolina lost this offseason while also having an extremely young, inexperienced team entering the 2020 NFL season. Bleacher Report most recently released their win-loss predictions for all 32 NFL teams following the draft. The B/R NFL staff exhibited pure pessimism towards the Panthers, projecting the team to finish with an astonishing 3-13 record. That was the second-worst projection, only behind the Jacksonville Jaguars which B/R anticipated would finish with a 2-14 record.

There is grave uncertainty surrounding how the Panthers will perform this upcoming season. The team is at the dawn of a new era, moving on from Ron Rivera after nine years along with losing future Hall of Famer Luke Kuechly and former MVP quarterback Cam Newton. This is a new-look Carolina team now led by Matt Rhule and Teddy Bridgewater, both not having yet to fully proven themselves in the NFL. With Rhule, there is much optimism that he can promptly turn this team around as he did at Temple and Baylor but with Bridgewater and the defense, there are many unanswered questions. Some consider Teddy to be a franchise-caliber quarterback while others believe he is a bridge until the Panthers find a young quarterback in the draft.

The Panthers lost all but three of their starters on defense from 2019 so this season will serve as a complete rebuild. The team will build around a young core consisting of No. 7 overall pick Derrick Brown, Shaq Thompson, Brian Burns, Donte Jackson, and others. The players the team selected in the draft have substantial potential but it will take a few years until the majority of that personnel contributes at a winning level.

Panthers fans should be excited about this team’s future despite a possible 3-13 record in 2020. Christian McCaffrey is considered to be the most impactful running back in the NFL, the team has a talented young receiving core of D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, and Curtis Samuel. Additionally, the team is organically constructing a dynamic defensive with elite potential a few years down the road building from the inside out. With Matt Rhule steering the ship, Panthers fans should be feeling nothing but optimism for their future.

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