The "LAST TIME" you had true hope/hype coming into the season....

[Brooklyn 3.0]

The season after Jake imploded against the Cards in the Playoffs. My hope was dashed when he imploded against the Eagles.

[SmokinwithWilly]

Beginning of the season before we selected a HC. I legitimately thought we were going to take a shot at Steichen, Johnson, or Ryans. But we hired Frank and my dreams were crushed. 

[Waldo]

Maybe 2019 that they could build a solid start on a 3-4 switch. Once they hired Rhule and I watched a video of him speaking I knew he was a dud and it didn't take them long to confirm that. Never had much since.

2015 was the last time I felt hopeful completely. That crashed by the time 2016 season was underway with Ron and DG in a pissing match and reverted back to expected mediocraty by 2017 and the return of Hurney.

[KSpan]

Maybe 2018, but I don't remember much about that offseason to know for sure. Other than that probably 2011, 2009, or 2006.

[d-dave]

For me, it was this season.  I was fully bought into the Frank Reich is a real coach, Bryce was the consensus #1 QB/pick, and our coaching staff was STACKED!  I guzzled that Kool Aid!!!

Welp....  I was pretty excited when we scored a 2nd touchdown Sunday.  We had a lead for 10 seconds!  LOL.

For me, the rest of the season is about Bryce's development and guys playing to prove they should remain.  

[beo]

2019 was the last time I was truly optimistic and expecting a playoff push. I had some cautious, reserved optimism for this year just because on paper all the moves seemed okay but the entire time there was something nagging at the bag of my head and I've come to realize that what that "thing" was is that I wasn't sold on Reich, our receiving core, and pretty much all of the team's depth pieces. I did not expect this level of implosion though, I don't think any besides the most extreme of pessimists did and I think it's fair to say that most of us were at least feeling MORE hopeful with the past off-season in conjunction with how 2022 ended on top of trading up to #1.

It's become abundantly clear that we have a severe ownership issue, something the vast majority of us were denying for many years as apart of what I can only assume was a collective defense mechanism in spite of the evidence hiding in plain sight.  It didn't even occur to me that a team constructed with such reckless abandon for how the personnel fit together could even make it onto an NFL field. It feels like a miracle that we even won a game. 

Remember how in 2020 we were making threads and posts about how Brees, Ryan and their respective team's cores were aging and that the division would be wide open in a few years if we played our cards right? Well, the division is certainly wide open alright. Just not for us, lol. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by beo

[PanthersATL]

Every off-season there's some amount of hope and anticipation.

Might need to lower that expectation a smidge for the 2024 season

[travisura]

12 hours ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

The season after Jake imploded against the Cards in the Playoffs. My hope was dashed when he imploded against the Eagles.

You were never hopeful/hype going into a season when Cam was here?

[Brooklyn 3.0]

1 minute ago, travisura said:

You were never hopeful/hype going into a season when Cam was here?

I wasn't as invested in the team then. Moved, grad school, new marriage, etc. And this is coming from a life long Auburn fan.

[rayzor]

aside from this offseason when i bought the hype (and i'm totally fine with having finally feeling that optimism for just a moment even though it fell apart) i think i haven't really been stoked since 2015. that was a hard loss for me and i'm not sure i ever recovered from it.

[DeAngelo Beason]

It was actually this season.  Even when we took Young over Stroud I felt that this team was ready to win.  I still believe it is ready to win.  I think Young is just so ungodly terrible that they have no chance.

[Panthers Fan 69]

Honestly.  2020 was the last time I had hope. New coach…yea it was rhule but no one knew how bad it was going to get.  New ideas. Plus we had football after Covid BS lockdown. Then after 3 games I knew this was it for a long time. I had partial hope last year when we won games and got into playoff contention.   
 

I forgot how stacked our team was in 2019. That team was loaded. Just no QB with hurt cam. 
 

I have zero hope now. Nothing. The panthers don’t even get me excited. I remember the 03 years and beyond, every game had me in nerves. Now. Just nothing. 

[t96]

Well, this year but I guess that wasn't really "true hype" more blind hype as I wasn't a fan of our coaching hire or choice of QB. So I'd say 2018.

 

2017 was a very good year and we got rid of what we thought was our biggest weakness at the time (Shula) and replaced him with a very highly regarded (as OC anyways) Norv Turner. Also would've easily beaten the Aints in the playoffs with better WRs and guess what, we go out and draft a legit WR in DJ and CMC was moving into clear every down back role. I was so damn pumped for 2018 and especially when we started the season 6-2. Then that fuging disaster of a Thursday night game vs the Steelers and Cam's shoulder injury ruined all our hopes and dreams. Man what a brutal brutal turn of events. After that game we lost 5 straight 1 score games that we easily would've won with a fully healthy Cam. That should've been a 12 win season. With Cam's health in question after that I haven't been truly hyped about this team since then.

[ickmule]

2018.