NFL insider predicts Panthers division crown with one major caveat

“If Rank’s forecast comes true,” said Anthony Rizzuti of Panthers Wire, “then the Panthers would clinch their first winning season since 2017 and their first division title since 2015. They'd also break a seven-year playoff drought, which currently stands as the longest such streak in franchise history. Each of those seven seasons has come under owner David Tepper, who purchased the team back in 2018. Carolina has gone a combined 36-80 over that span.”

Now there’s certainly been some buzz this offseason when it comes to Dave Canales’s team, which won four of its final nine games in 2024 after a 1-7 start. Led by general manager Dan Morgan, the team was very proactive in free agency—especially when it came to addressing one of the worst NFL defenses in recent memory.

Rank has Canales’s club losing at Jacksonville in Week 1, then rebounding to win four of their next six games. He then predicts that the team will drop five of its next six contests. With a 5-7 record after 12 outings, the Panthers will embark on a four-game winning streak. Despite a loss at Tampa Bay in Week 18, Carolina will finish 9-8 and grab its first NFC South title since the Super Bowl 50 season of 2015.

That prediciton would be about right given the recent record of this division. The Bucs have won the NFC South with an 8-9, 9-8, and 10-7 record, respectively, since 2022.