NFL Execs rank the Panthers in the nfc

[Mr. Scot]

Let's be real...

We see these rankings and predictions every single year. And every season that follows they prove to not be worth the bandwidth they're written on.

They'll got some things right, and a lot of things wrong. The hope is that the good things said about us are the ones that prove to be right.

[Khyber53]

20 hours ago, Icege said:

This.

A lot of folks want to put everything on Teddy's shoulders without acknowledging poor playcalling, poor defensive play, poor offensive line play, and all of the other impactful issues the team went through. The team, however, seems to understand that it was more than just the QB. Nearly across the board there have been improvements made:

DB - Our DBs were horrendous last season. Troy Pride was on the bubble for this roster while he was a starting CB on last season's. Replace Rasul Douglas with Jaycee Horn, Troy Pride Jr with a healthy DJack, and Corn Elder with AJ Abouye and this looks to be an incredibly improved group.

DL - Replace Kerr, Obada, Hamilton, Weatherly, and Larkin with Jones, Fox, Nixon, Hoskins, and Johnson.

LB - Get rid of Tahir Whitehead, add Haason Reddick. ??? PROFIT!

ST - Santoso replacing Slye.

RB - Added Royce Freeman, Chuba Hubbard, and a healthy CMC in place of Mike Davis and Reggie Bonnafon.

WR - Losing Curtis sucked, but Terrace Marshall Jr + Shi Smith could end up being upgrades. Especially TMJ.

QB - Had issues with opening things up with the deep ball, went and got a stronger armed QB. Could be a push if decision making and accuracy are issues.

TE - Dan Arnold and Tommy Tremble replacing Chris Manhertz while pushing Ian Thomas.

OL - The only group that might have been downgraded. Okung/Scott and Reed replaced by Erving/Scott + Elflein doesn't exactly give a whole lot of hope. I'm hoping they don't look as bad as Clemson's OL did last night vs. Georgia.

Exactly. Teddy didn't do us many favors, but he was far from the only reason we came up short in game after game last year. And we came up just a wee bit short, one score most times. There's a lot of hope one can take from that, but there's also a lot of potential for a downgrade this season. On paper we should be much improved, but we won't know until the season starts.

I think we'll do better and maybe contend, but we're in one of the three toughest divisions in a season where literally any player(s) could find themselves missing two games or more just because they walked past someone who coughed at the wrong time. 

Still, I'm liking our depth. Depth may be one of the biggest factors in winners and losers this season.