The Carolina Panthers were unstoppable two seasons ago. They almost had a perfect season, finishing with a 15-1 record. Interestingly enough, their 14-0 start put them up with the 1972 Miami Dolphins, 2007 New England Patriots and 2009 Indianapolis Colts as the only teams to have a perfect start. As legend holds, however, the Dolphins are still the only team to finish out and take their undefeated season to a Super Bowl victory. The Panthers’ locomotive force was derailed in miserable fashion by the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl L 24-10.
Many sports fans—especially Panthers fans—expected the Panthers to come back in the 2016 season, but they undoubtedly fell short of expectations. The Panthers missed the playoffs with a 6-10 record and looked flat when compared to their dominant previous season. For this upcoming season, it would certainly be a safe bet to say that the Panthers will have a sizeable chip on their shoulder and will be looking to avenge their dismal last season. In order to do this, the Panthers will have to assess what went wrong last season and pinpoint which changes or additions need to be made.
At their end of the season press conference, GM Dave Gettleman mildly addressed the NFL Draft and how the Panthers would be handling it. “Really looking at it quick, I think the safeties and corners go fairly deep (in the draft class), and there’s a pretty good group of defensive ends and a good group of running backs. But I don’t go in with any preconceived notions. We go through the process, we evaluate, we see where everything is at, and we draft. Picking eighth, we’re going to be looking at a really good player,” said Gettleman.
The Panthers will want to bolster their offensive and defensive lines in light of last year’s performance, though injuries were a key factor in that debacle (most notably star LT Michael Oher, who only played three games before being injured). There are two options when it comes to addressing a team’s needs: the free agent market and the NFL Draft. The Panthers are lucky to have a solid offensive core spearheaded by QB Cam Newton, one of the biggest dual-threat QBs in the league. They also have a solid RB option in Jonathan Stewart, though there are explosive young talents in like Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook in the Draft from a RB standpoint. Greg Olson and Kelvin Benjamin lead the receivers and will surely have another successful season. The biggest thing for the Panther is reinvigorating their already talented core group of guys and getting them going.
“[Offensive Coordinator] Mike Shula and I sat down and we talked about the direction and the vision for what we want to try and do. We’re going to mix some things up, obviously. The biggest thing, our realization is that our primary runner cannot be our quarterback,” said Head Coach Ron Rivera.
QB Cam Newton is a powerful runner, being the stout player that he is. Rivera wants to get RB Stewart more involved; this also increases the potential of the Panthers drafting a RB to help out with the running game. Rivera pinpointed the offensive line as an area for improvement, saying they need to add more depth in order to be a strong team.
It seems that the Panthers’ front office has the right idea in mind as far as restructuring the team, and they’ll look to make some premier signings while also trying to lock up some unrestricted free agents. From a North Carolina sports gambling standpoint, the Panthers would be a solid bet in most matchups if they can address their offseason needs.