Roundtable: How Close Are the Panthers to Being a Playoff Team? - Sports Illustrated

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Schuyler Callihan:

Winning the division is a little unrealistic for the Panthers in 2021 and the playoffs may be a bit of a reach as well. As well as the Panthers have done this offseason in both free agency and in the draft, they are still a relatively young team that does not have a lot of experience playing together. In fact, Carolina has the youngest roster in the NFL with an average age of 24.2 years old. Head coach Matt Rhule and offensive coordinator Joe Brady are only in their 2nd year and with a new quarterback, it may take some time for things to gel offensively. Tampa Bay is going to be even better in year two with Tom Brady and despite Drew Brees retiring, the Saints still have a very solid roster. The window to compete for the division will start in 2022 for the Panthers but I do think they have upgraded the roster on both sides of the ball and added depth at several spots. They will be in a much better position to succeed this fall and should finish the season with around 8-9 wins. 

Matt Welch:

I think the playoffs are in reach this year for Carolina. If Christian McCaffrey hadn’t gone down early last season, the Panthers may have snuck in. The defense has plenty of cornerstones and shored up a few necessary positions this offseason. But it will all depend on how Sam Darnold controls the offense. If he gets in a groove and cuts out the turnovers that plagued him in New York, the Panthers will be competitive and could very easily take a Wild Card spot.

Josh Altorfer:

All of a sudden Carolina matches up really well with its NFC South division rivals. The revamped defense should be able to slow down some of the high-powered interdivisional offenses. The simplest way to make it into the postseason is going through the division and the Panthers are finally built to do it. It won’t be an easy task by any means especially with the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers returning all of their starters from last season. The Panthers' offense will need to improve drastically with Sam Darnold at quarterback to put up enough points and hopefully sneak into a Wild Card spot.

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