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Barnwell puts Panthers in top Super Bowl contender tier

Cary Kollins

By Cary Kollins,
in Carolina Panthers

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Cary Kollins Experienced

Cary Kollins

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Bill Barnwell expects the Panthers to rebound with top ten units on both sides of the ball. FWIW, he has the Falcons in the same tier as the Lions and Cowboys.

Carolina Panthers

Super Bowl odds: 3.1 percent (tied for ninth)

The numbers suggested that Carolina was likely to decline last season, but nobody saw them falling from 15-1 to 6-10 after winning the NFC Championship in 2015. The Panthers went from 6-1 in one-score games in 2015 to 2-6 last season, so while they declined significantly, it wasn't quite as big of a drop-off as their raw win total might indicate. They also lost their two best players for stretches of time when Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly went down with injuries. Ideally, the Panthers won't need to give Derek Anderson two starts.

Since-fired general manager Dave Gettleman built his offseason around protecting Newton, and while I might take issue with the decision to give new left tackle Matt Kalil a five-year contract with $31 million guaranteed, it's at least a new body with some (distant) track record of success. New receiving backs Christian McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel should provide useful intermediate targets, with McCaffrey also helping to shoulder some of the running load that had been thrust upon Newton and Jonathan Stewart. If James Bradberry continues to improve and develops into a No. 1 corner, the Panthers could look more like their 2015 selves.

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Khyber53 Grand Master

Khyber53

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2 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

This is also the same guy that predicted we would blow away the Broncos in the Super Bowl. 

That being said, the same could be said for just about everyone on this website. We all had egg on our faces after that one.

But here's to 2017!

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UnluckyCharms Contributor

UnluckyCharms

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14 minutes ago, Cary Kollins said:

 

I'm not going to bother pointing out the differences between the 2015 SB Panthers lineup and the 2016 season opener lineup that lost by a missed field goal.

Surely you don't mean the lineup that got dominated by an all time great defense?

Besides, everyone and their mothers said our 2016 team would be better than the 2015 team. Added KB back to the mix, lost Josh. Upgraded from Harper to Boston. Finnegan to Bene.  Allen and Cotchery were let go. Got a better punter. Our core remained unchanged. On paper we got younger and faster plus the experience of knowing how they'd come at us. They came at us the exact same way and the the game ended in another loss.

They beat us and they did it both times with bad QB play. That team was just better than ours. Not a chance we beat them 4 times in 2015. 2016 would have been closer.

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Cary Kollins Experienced

Cary Kollins

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26 minutes ago, UnluckyCharms said:

Surely you don't mean the lineup that got dominated by an all time great defense?

Besides, everyone and their mothers said our 2016 team would be better than the 2015 team. Added KB back to the mix, lost Josh. Upgraded from Harper to Boston. Finnegan to Bene.  Allen and Cotchery were let go. Got a better punter. Our core remained unchanged. On paper we got younger and faster plus the experience of knowing how they'd come at us. They came at us the exact same way and the the game ended in another loss.

They beat us and they did it both times with bad QB play. That team was just better than ours. Not a chance we beat them 4 times in 2015. 2016 would have been closer.

 

Jonathan Stewart was injured on like the first carry of the game, multiple fumbles all going the Broncos way, Remmers 1v1 vs. Miller because Shula is an idiot, extremely poor and fluky special teams plays etc etc. The Broncos played their best game of the year and the Panthers played their worst by a mile. It happens in one and done games.

 

The Panthers were the much better team in 2015. Football is fluky sometimes.

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Randolph Panther Rising Star

Randolph Panther

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2 hours ago, Cary Kollins said:

 

Jonathan Stewart was injured on like the first carry of the game, multiple fumbles all going the Broncos way, Remmers 1v1 vs. Miller because Shula is an idiot, extremely poor and fluky special teams plays etc etc. The Broncos played their best game of the year and the Panthers played their worst by a mile. It happens in one and done games.

 

The Panthers were the much better team in 2015. Football is fluky sometimes.

Absolute truth! No one will ever convince me the Broncos were better that year.  The Falcons beat us once that year also but they surely werent better.  That was so frustrating of a game.

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