The Carolina Panthers are just not a great team and this can be blamed on a lot of things but mostly on poor management decisions. I don't remember what year it was, I think it was 2020, but during the draft that nobody had ever done in the history of the NFL drafting process: They drafted ONLY defensive players.
Now I for one can admire thinking outside the box and also can definitely say that having a good defense is absolutely important in a game. This was proven time and time again in Super Bowls when an explosive offense faced an immovable defense and the defensive team normally will win. However, for the Panthers, the year they did their crazy defense-only drafting spree, they had a losing season with a ton of lost yardage... basically the gamble didn't pay off and they spent the next 3 years phasing out most of the players they spent all their resources obtaining. While each of the defensive players they selected were absolute stars in college, they didn't amount to a hill of beans in the pros.
Later, they would make bizarre draft and trading decisions two of which come to mind just off the top of my head such as trading Christian McCaffrey in 2023, who was at the time their best (perhaps only) receiver. The things they got for trading Christian resulted in nothing while McCaffrey went on to become the best Running Back in the league for San Fran.
Later, Carolina would use their first round draft pick to hire a 5'10, 180lb QB Bryce Young. While he has put on 20 lbs he still looks alarmingly small on the field and he frequently doesn't play and tends to throw nearly as many interceptions as he does TD's. It's frustrating to watch.
I speak from a certain level of experience when I say that getting tackled sucks. But getting tackled repeatedly by guys that weigh 150 lbs more than you do is shocking and it is easy to see how rattled Bryce gets in games and this is part of the reason why he is so interception-prone.
Now as far as 2025 is concerned, Carolina began the pre-season about how it would be expected of them. They lost all 3 pre-season games badly. The pre-season is NOT a good gauge of the rest of the season because since these games do not count towards the overall record and rankings so many of us were hopeful that the cats were saving their juice for the real season. Then they dropped the first game of the regular season badly, barely lost to the Cards in game 2, then showed some real light vs. Atalanta in a 30-0 blowout.
In the past 2 weeks Carolina has shockingly won both of their games, eeking out 3 point victories vs. Dallas and Miami but here is where things get a bit iffy if you start to dig into the numbers. Miami is so bad that there is talk about basically the entire coaching staff being fired and Dallas has a similar situation to Carolina in that they have been spending like mad but just never seem to get results. The Cowboys actually have a draw on their season record and this is extremely rare in the NFL.
The Panthers are sitting at 3-3 on the season and this is giving a lot of fans some false hope, I'm afraid.
You see, next week Carolina is likely to win again but this is because they are playing arguably the worst team in the NFL against the NY Jets who are currently 0-6. When they play the Buffalo Bills the following week, you can expect an absolute slaughter. The Bills are a solid team but following that game the Panthers will face Green Bay (almost certain loss), then the Falcons who will be looking for revenge for the shutout earlier in the year, the 49ers who are always good, then the Rams. That string of almost certain losses should take the wind out of their sails. To round out the end of the season should be quite depressing as this is where it will likely become evident that Carolina has no business being considered for the playoffs - which they very well could be at that point - but that will be squashed when they face Tampa Bay (currently 5-1) twice in 3 weeks with an almost certain loss vs Seattle in between.
There are 32 teams in the NFL and in any given year you can plan on about 1/4 of them as being pretty terrible. Right now the Panthers are 28th in passing, 19th in points per game and 22nd in points allowed per game (in a negative sense.)
This is a powerful combination of negativity.
I never really have optimism about my team but anyone who is simply looking at the win/loss section of the stats is in for a rude awakening. The fact of the matter is that Carolina has only played two actual contender teams this year in the Jacksonville Jags and the New England Patriots... and were blown out by both of them. Their victories have been either flukes (Atlanta shutout) or against teams that gave up before the season began (Miami Dolphins). I'll give credit where credit is due and say the win vs. Dallas was a solid one.
I would be gobsmacked if they had a winning season and would bet the farm that this will not end up being the case.