Schedule being released May 11

[tukafan21]

Assuming we open the year against Houston like I expect, I think our Thursday game this year will be against the Bucs (but if we don’t open against Houston, that will be our Thursday game).

Panthers-Bucs in a down year for the South with Baker playing against us just screams Thursday Night Football.  Lots of storylines there for a non big time matchup, that’s generally what they look for with the TNF schedule.

[hepcat]

1 hour ago, tukafan21 said:

Assuming we open the year against Houston like I expect, I think our Thursday game this year will be against the Bucs (but if we don’t open against Houston, that will be our Thursday game).

Panthers-Bucs in a down year for the South with Baker playing against us just screams Thursday Night Football.  Lots of storylines there for a non big time matchup, that’s generally what they look for with the TNF schedule.

Oh yea huge drama surrounding Baker’s return to Carolina after 7 miserable starts

[tukafan21]

1 hour ago, hepcat said:

Oh yea huge drama surrounding Baker’s return to Carolina after 7 miserable starts

It's not huge drama by any means, but it's something interesting to talk about for something that would never sniff a national broadcast game, and that's the kind of thing they look for in the Thursday night games.

But the fact that we traded for him, then cut him mid-season and he ended up playing decent enough for the Rams to get another starting job and it happened to be in our division, it just seems like a TNF type of storyline to me.

The game against the Bears could also fit that bill given the trade and I guess the Colts game could as well with the Reich storyline, but the divisional factor I think gives the Bucs game in Carolina a slight edge there.

Especially when I look at the Bucs schedule, to my eye, there isn't an interesting story in their whole schedule outside of Baker with us, they don't play the Browns or Rams and not like they've lost or stolen any big players lately outside of ones who are no longer in the league in Brady, Gronk, AB.  The next closest interesting thing I could see for TB would be against the Jags, just because they're both in Florida.

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by tukafan21

[jfra78]

Have a feeling they will schedule both Saints games late in the season thinking that it will come down to those games for the division.

[PantherKyle]

2 hours ago, jfra78 said:

Have a feeling they will schedule both Saints games late in the season thinking that it will come down to those games for the division.

Would love that. Take me back to a big game in Charlotte for the division against New Orleans around the holidays. 
ahhh, 2013. That day in the rain watching with my mom is a memory I’ll always cherish.