In 2009: Panthers the 4th most dangerous team...

[Cyberjag]

I can see us being really dangerous. Teams with lots of talent that are searching for their first win often are.

[chollar8]

I just don't understand how everyone has given up on Jake simply because of one game... some may say their judgement isn't from only one game, but those doubters never recognize that the team went 7-9 without Jake last year, or how many times (many) Jake has saved the game, or energized the team to win. It isn't raw talent that keeps Jake on this team, nor has it ever been. Jake brings a great deal of determination, fire, and leadership to the team... and for that he is a great quarterback. The Carolina Panthers offense is a ground defense... with two spectacular weapons that will only get better. As long as the defense is strong and Jake does his part, this is a very good team.

See: the Oakland Raiders game. Im not giving up on him completely. But it is time to start looking elsewhere. The rest of your comments are pretty spot on, however.

[top dawg]

we are going to play much better teams next year, and the issues that were our downfall this season (terrible defensive line, coaching on the defensive side of the ball) will still be there.

Well, no one is going to mistake you for being an optimist amidst the coming personnel changes, another year of experience under the young'ns' belts, and the arrival of Meeks.

To me, it's just too early to make any kind of judgments. But I can understand your outlook.

[panthersphan]

have you seen the teams we face next year.....lol

The rest of the division has to play the same teams as us (besides: Minny and Arizona) And who knows who steps up in those 2 divisions...well see...

We need to wait to at least see what we do in the off-season first though.

[beastson]

If we make it through this tough season in the playoffs

With game after game we make adjustments when needed and no heavy weaknesses that will get exposed

We can make it to the Superbowl, real talk

We had a good season, but it was a lot of times we're win or lose, a lot of people was frustrated

[CWalker4205]

It's the off season and at this time of year I will accept nothing less than 19-0.

This year we broke the "last to first" that was happening in the NFC South. Next year we break the "first to last" myth.

I just wish that's what Fox strived for...not 3-1 every quarter

[bigdog_10_2002]

with the current o-line, the running back tandem in place, steve smith, and jon beason, we will be a solid football team....somewhere in the 8-12 win total...imo

[Baschski]

With the talent that we have there's no way we're going to be any worse than .500. No one else in our divison is very impressive, so we'll have a legitimate shot at getting back to the playoffs, bad coaching or not. Our offense will be one of the best in the NFC, and if Meeks can get some consistency on the defense then we'll be fine.

[X-Clown]

we are going to play much better teams next year, and the issues that were our downfall this season (terrible defensive line, coaching on the defensive side of the ball) will still be there.

I didn't realize that the free agency period, the draft, training camp and preseason had already passed by. Man, that was quick.

Let's keep in mind that going into the 2008 season we thought that our toughest opponents would be the Chargers, Packers, and the Giants, since all 3 played in their respective conference championships last year. Only one of those was correct. And we could go ahead and put 2 wins in the column against the Falcons with their rookie quarterback and team that was left in shambles. How did that work out? Being 9-7 was enough to win the NFC South in 2007 for Tampa Bay....getting the same record in 2008 was good enough for third place and 3 games back in the division, along with the firing of their Super Bowl winning head coach.

Surely there was no reason to think that the Patriots who went 16-0 in 2007 were not going to cruise to an AFC East title over a division where the second best Bills won 7 games...and no chance in hell that the 1-15 Dolphins were going to end up doing anything but bringing up the rear of the division in 2008. And the list goes on and on...

[CardiacCat893490]

^^^

Just goes to show you how unpredictable the NFL is. Some of your predictions can be right and some can be wrong....most likely you're gonna get most of them wrong

[Fireball77]

I'm with you, X-Clown. It's another reason I laugh at the stuff like PANTHERS HAVE SECOND HARDEST SCHEDULE NEXT YEAR. You don't know how hard the schedule is until the season is OVER..not before it starts because it uses the past season's record as it's base.

[LiQuiD]

Exactly as stated above, everyone incorrectly assumes that next year will be a carbon copy of this year except that the Panthers will be worse despite all the changes that are being made to ensure that we improve. There's not a single aspect of the NFL that remains the same between seasons except for the number of teams and the number of games. Everything else can't be known or predicted until the end of a particular season.

It's that simple. No use wearing out the keys on your keyboard speculating on next year until at least a few games into the season.

I'll save my carpal tunnel syndrome until October.

[panthers55]

I am going to choose to be optimistic especially since it is February. I do think that the offense was more than adequate to keep us in any game this year. The issue will be the defense. Fox said he fixed the offense last season and will fix the defense this season. That means that some high draft picks as well as free agency will be spent on the defensive line as it should. If you look at it we are more stable now than we have been in years.

[JungleCat]

I don't know why they say that now. I saw this team go from the most dangerous to the most useless in one playoff game against the Cardinals. Too much stuff has yet to happen before next season gets here. I be cautiously optimistic for now.