Some people are fans of the Carolina Panthers. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Carolina Panthers. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.
Your Team: Carolina Panthers
Your 2025 record: 8-9, but not just any old 8-9. This the best 8-9 in the whole NFC South, making the Panthers division champs despite having a losing record—the bad smell that comes with its own deodorizer. Only five teams have ever achieved such a feat, and the Panthers are two of them. They also had the third-worst point difference of any division winner ever (minus-69), so the only luck they could claim as their own was their location.
Your coach: Dave Canales, who received a six-year contract two seasons ago based mostly on the fact that owner David Tepper had four coaches in the previous two seasons and was tired of looking like David Cross at press conferences. Canales is 13-22 in those two seasons, including a 34-31 playoff loss last year, but those four years are going to come in handy if things don't improve, which in all likelihood they won't.
Your quarterback: Bryce Young, entering his fourth and realistically his make-good-or-make-tracks year. His numbers last year were roughly in Bo Nix's neighborhood, but Nix was on a team that won 14 games, which makes him a relative genius by comparison. Young is also downgraded by fantasy weirdos because ... look, you don't care and neither do we.
He's just ordinary as a standalone numbers producer (the Panthers were 27th in points and yards last year, which should tell you what you need to know), but Canales's alternatives are Kenny Pickett, Haynes King and Kyle Trask, so Young needs only to avoid injury for his job to be safe at least for another year. Can't say what happens after that, but Tepper hasn't been very visible the last couple of seasons, and trigger fingers that don't get used often will start firing on their own.
Having a new play-caller in Brad Idzik suggests that Young will be challenged to find whatever it is that made him the top draft pick in 2023 and produce it on command. But the addition of associate head coach Darrell Bevell also causes ears to twitch as they pick up the hum of a seat being heated. Put another way, the Panthers went out and got Andy Dalton to play the game Young missed last year, and if that doesn't shriek desperation even more than Kenny Pickett, nothing does.
What’s new that sucks: The team's tight end issues since letting Greg Olsen retire to play under-appreciated mic jockey have led them to ultra-veteran Darren Waller, who finally signed this week. This, after a series of middle-round tight end draft picks who have done little to energize the offense, including Ian Thomas, Tommy Tremble, Ja'Tavion Sanders and Mitchell Evans, tells you how much they need someone/anyone to play the position.
Waller will be 34 in a month, and his last two years have alternated between injuries and retirement. Also, RB Chuba Hubbard just tweaked his hamstring last week and is described as week to week, which is football speak for "Oh shit." His putative replacement, Jonathon Brooks, was drafted two years ago and has had two ACL injuries already. Rico Dowdle, who had three big games last year before being rendered inert, is now a Steeler. But what's really new is the fact that Canales has to improve a brutal defense that has been generous to several faults since the glory days of 2013, all while the offense struggles to find its pace after eight seasons in the lower half of the league in most valuable statistical categories—like points.
What has always sucked: This seems gratuitous to say it this way, but the team itself. This is year 32 and they have yet to put together back-to-back winning seasons, and they won't do it this year either. Since the end of 2017, their last winning year, they have the worst record of any team not based in New Jersey, and their strength of schedule, 10th most difficult, includes the six games against the other division members, who are, as we have mentioned already, awful. More immediately, their loss to Buffalo last weekend was described as "putrid" by a team beat writer, which is excessive even for practice games. The NFC South has been the best place in football to be bad the last few years, and the Panthers' division-winning record was matched three years earlier by Tampa. That's not the same as always, but 12 coaches in four years makes it seem like an eternity.
What might not suck: Last year's offensive rookie of the year, WR Tetairoa McMillan, and his partner WR Jalen Coker give Young some lively targets if he can create enough time in the pocket to find them. Backup LB Princely Umanmielen has the best name in the sport, if only because it could make at least four play-by-play announcers cry on air, and who doesn't want that to spice up a drab Sunday?
The other news is that Tepper might not be the most reviled owner in town now even though he still hasn't seen a winning record, because he isn't Tom Dundon, and even if he was, the Lombardi Trophy doesn't have any names on it except Vince, so his kids won't be made trophy famous for having done nothing to help win said trophy. They simply will have to do what rich kids have always done since time immemorial—wait for the reading of the will.
HEAR IT FROM PANTHERS FANS!
Abbie:
This team has drained its fans of any possible pride or achievement for so long that our crown jewel of the past decade is Cam Newton coming back to bang the drum at a playoff game that we couldn’t even get in ourselves and lost. The worst part about that loss is I want even upset about it because I was just so happy to be there.
Sam:
I was home visiting family in NC over the holidays and the news cycle was dominated by a popular brewery going under because the co-owner got arrested for being a major creep (understatement of the year). Between him getting arrested and LaMelo getting traded, the streets of Charlotte are now safer.
I wrote in last year and told the tale of only drafting Panthers players for my fantasy team. Never one to back down from a bit, I did the same thing this year. And much like the Panthers, I improved from a whopping zero wins to a single victory. That team I beat? Everyone was under 6'.
A win is a win but no one stands shorter than Charlotte as a major city.
David:
"They're ready to compete for the NFC South championship!" Yeah, so's your mom, literally. In 30+ years, this team has never had back-to-back winning seasons. Three times in the history of the NFL a team with a losing record has gone to the playoffs, and all three times those teams came out of the NFC South. Would it surprise you to know that it was the Panthers and the Bucs? The Panthers managed to do this TWICE.
I sent in a late entry last year about how much time I'd spent trying to figure out if the word "pygmy" is problematic, before scrapping it. I still don't know, and who the fuck cares.
Mike:
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, wins divisions with a sub-.500 record like the Panthers. How many chances did they have to clinch the division with a victory, and then lose anyway? Honestly, I can't be bothered to look it up. And if you think we're going to show even an ounce of gratitude to the Falcons for gifting the division to us, you can write that idea down on a piece of paper, crinkle it up, and punt it into the stratosphere, Todd Sauerbrun-style.
Bryce isn't the guy and everyone knows it. If you squint at his stats a certain way, or look at one of his occasional nice comebacks, he might look somewhat decent, but winning a weak division and an early playoff exit (in other words, exactly what happened last year) is his absolute ceiling. But there's no one else available, he's still on a rookie contract, and he seems like a likeable enough person, so we're stuck with each other until someone else better comes along. I'll let you draw your own relationship/marriage metaphors there.
The airport's been under construction for years and still isn't big enough for the mass crush of passengers that transfer through it every day and curse every time they see CLT on their itinerary. Fury 325 broke down again. This is still a city of transplant Bills and Steelers fans, all of whom are probably terrible drivers. Even though he's stayed quiet recently, no doubt Tepper still sucks.
Also, I suck for complaining about the Panthers taking T-Mac in the draft last year. He's a total stud, and will be their best player until he's traded for peanuts or leaves for free agency in a couple of years.
Carlos:
The main theme of this section a year ago was about how our owner had not been as big of an asshole as the year before. That is how irrelevant this football team is.
I'm also probably the only fan of this team called Carlos. Fuck Cam Newton not diving on that fumble.
Zack:
Bryce Young is not the answer fans have deluded themselves after going from the 30-32nd best QB in the league to maybe 23-25th.
Fuck John Kasay.
Miles:
The Panthers just announced a $500M upgrade to Bank of America Stadium that for all intents and purposes appears designed to make the stadium look more like an airport. This fits with the overall vibe of Charlotte - you're killing time at a Panera Bread until you can take off for somewhere better.
Cameron:
The Panthers making the playoffs with a losing record is kinda like the NC Dems winning a bunch of huge races in the state like Governor but Trump still winning the state in 2024.
What does it say that the best season for this team in recent memory is one where they didn't even have a winning record? That's like the absolute baseline for if a team is good or not!
Despite all of that, the Panthers were one stop away from beating the super bowl favorite going into the playoffs! The bank was buzzing, the city was believing in the Panthers again, our dickhead owner even buried the hatchet with our franchise's most talented player ever as Cam was who banged the Keep Pounding drum pregame! Did Ejiro Evero do LITERALLY ANYTHING to get that stop? Absolutely not! This man let the league MVP carve us up sitting in prevent the whole drive, didn't apply any pressure or mix up coverages against the best passing team in the league last year. Considering the magical 2015 season is over a decade ago, that's about as good as it's gonna get.
At least we correctly drafted a stud rookie WR after the last one has hands made of stone and has a diet that solely consists of roadkill. While squirrel and raccoon can absolutely be considered a delicacy around these parts, you'd think someone who is a professional athlete would have better eating habits.
The hornets had more or less the same season as the Panthers, except they traded their best player and somehow had a less painful last game despite losing by 30 in the play-in tournament. Of course the only professional team in this state to actually win something ever (Go Canes, Stanley Cup Champs!!) doesn't even play in Charlotte.
Despite how the city started rallying around the team again last year, the Panthers remain maybe the 6th most popular NFL team in North Carolina. The Steelers, Eagles, Giants, Bills, Patriots, etc all have larger fanbases locally and the Panthers play road games in their own stadium far too often. Case in point, my in-laws are Eagles fans and my 3 year old nephew most likely has never heard of the team in the state he lives in. They would rather chew glass than have him be a fan of the Panthers and I can't say I blame them. Being a fan of this time is signing up for some kind of meaningless existence where your team making the playoffs with a losing record is like a Super Bowl but you're not considered as having truly suffered like other NFL fanbases.
Jake:
I once saw one of those "Most Hated NFL Team in this State" maps. The Panthers are so irrelevant that a) they didn't even get picked by any other state and b) they were also voted the most hated team in North Carolina.
Drew:
The Carolina Panthers are a perfect representation of their city. An eternally mediocre, uninsulting, corporate washed product that will be the one forgotten item on any list. Charlotte is a cultural black hole filled with architecturally elevated soviet bloc apartments which serve as mill houses for the bean counters of UPtown. Our wine and cheese fans are serenaded by a ted lasso impersonator as they arrive in the middle of the 1st quarter and leave at the beginning of the 4th.
Cam Newton was the greatest thing that ever happened to us but couldn't win over the Boomer Ford 150 drivers of rock hill that represent half our fan base because he danced and wore funny hats. (Spoiler: it was actually because he's black)
David:
I'm at least 57% sure the Panthers are just a training arc for David Tepper's future gig at running the Presidential Council of Fitness. May God have mercy on us all. Given His sense of humor, however, we'll probably have another Helene-level hurricane hit the Carolinas before the Panthers get to the Super Bowl again. They'll be blown out by the Raiders because we deserve that kind of pain.
Allan:
Keep Pounding is the perfect motto for this team, which is as stubbornly unable to admit mistakes and change course as the average Charlotte city council member. Why finish those troublesome airport renovations when you can just keep pounding [more travelers into that tiny American Airlines terminal]?
To exist as a Panthers fan is to embrace almost. We almost won the NFC championship as a second-year expansion team. We almost beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Cam Newton almost dove on that ball to try and win Super Bowl 50 over the decaying noodle arm of Peyton Manning. When we gave the Rams our patented almost scare in last year’s wild card game, I couldn’t even muster the energy to be disappointed. And after all, I had money on the Rams, just like every other bank bro in Uptown Charlotte who chose financial practicality over their dreams.
We adopted Keep Pounding as our motto when our first great defensive player spoke those words in a pregame hype speech as he was dying. We didn’t deserve you Sam Mills, and you certainly deserve a better legacy than Bryce Young getting a massive extension so he can bunny hop to pass the ball over his own linemen for the next four years.
But hey, being almost good is usually enough to win our pathetic division.
Adam:
I can't stop laughing from the earlier entry from a guy who said "winning the NFC South is like having the biggest dick in kindergarten".
That's Bryce Young.
Carlos:
- Our quarterback can't see over his own dashboard, let alone our guards.
- Our first round draft pick Offensive Tackle is rawer than Ol' Dirty likes it. He's probably going to have to start immediately.(not kidding)
- River barges and Planets turn the corner faster than Panthers project players.
- I told everyone on here a few years ago that Charlotte is Great Value Atlanta, now all of America knows.
- Jaycee Horn is like your Dad: he's the man....when he's around :-(
- Dan Morgan gives big "Management likes the cut of his jib..." vibes
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