Sports betting analyst shares heartbreaking prediction for 2025 Panthers

There's an air of optimism in the Carolinas ahead of football season. The Carolina Panthers more than doubled their win total in 2024, and the expectation is that they can continue getting better in 2025. They might end up being a solid team if things don't go horribly wrong.

However, one betting expert doesn't think they'll actually be much better. R.J. White of CBS Sports believes picking Carolina to be substantially better in 2025 is a fool's bet, and he cautioned anyone who's willing to put money on that idea.

White said he's looking at two good bets for the Panthers this season. One was the over on Tetairoa McMillan's yards, but the other was the under on total wins. The line is set at 6.5 wins, and the analyst believes they won't hit that, meaning they'll be 6-11 at best.

"I want to be optimistic on the Panthers as I look for someone to challenge the Bucs in the division since I'm not particularly high on Atlanta, but I simply see them as being overvalued in the win total market right now," he admitted.

The Panthers, White claimed, do have a lot of winnable games on the schedule with one major asterisk. Their overall talent level has to have gotten better, especially on defense, and White doesn't think it has.

"We'll need to see several players on that unit perform much better this year, plus Young to make a leap, to get this team in the neighborhood of .500," White said. "If you think that's possible, I'd consider making a ceiling play like +440 to win the division rather than play the heavily-juiced Over for their win total."

The Panthers were expected to take a leap forward this year, perhaps even challenging for a postseason spot. But in the CBS expert's eyes, a one-win increase in 2025 is about all they can hope for.