What is the Carolina Panthers’ ceiling in 2020?
By Dean Jones
What is the Carolina Panthers’ ceiling in 2020?
Expectations are incredibly low for the Carolina Panthers heading into the new season. They find themselves in a tough-looking NFC South and will clash against a number of teams that have aspirations of reaching the Super Bowl in 2020.
The likes of Teddy Bridgewater, Russell Okung, and Robby Anderson will all need to hit the ground running on offense. This will give the Panthers a different dimension and could even take some of the pressure off All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey.
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Their defense has plenty of areas that could become suspect. Their secondary and defensive line has been revamped and the retirement of Luke Kuechly is another crushing blow the Panthers may take some time to get over.
The organization managed to reach 5-11 last season following the firing of long-time head coach Ron Rivera. While new arrival Matt Rhule is expected not to be judged on results during year one of his bumper seven-year deal, anything lower than this will cast doubt as to how long this expected rebuild in Carolina is going to take.
Realistically speaking, anything around 5-7 wins should be considered a fantastic achievement in the circumstances. There appear to be few openings for the Panthers to gain victories on their schedule and they must pick them up when the opportunity arises.
If one was looking at the fixtures more optimistically, then a .500 record of 8-8 would be their ceiling. This would give their young squad an untold amount of confidence and something that could speed up their aspirations to becoming a contender in the coming years.
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A lot of things need to go right for the Carolina Panthers if they want to reach this sort of record. But they do have players who are capable of lifting them to this sort of region if they build momentum from the outset.