The NFL schedule gets revealed tomorrow, but we already know the opponents the Carolina Panthers will be squaring off against next season, and we know where those games will be played (unless an international one gets thrown into the mix). While the Panthers look like they’re going to have a very difficult schedule
, they did get a little bit of a respite from how the teams were split between home and road opponents.The Panthers have hardly any soft games outside their NFC South rivals. Only three
of their other 11 games are against teams projected to win fewer than nine games. But here’s the good part: all of those three games are on the road. Here’s the full breakdown:
Home
- Buccaneers
- Falcons
- Saints
- Bears
- Lions
- Bengals
- Ravens
- Seahawks
- Broncos
Away
- Buccaneers
- Falcons
- Saints
- Packers
- Vikings
- Browns
- Steelers
- Eagles
The three non-division teams with projected win totals under nine are the Vikings, Steelers, and Browns. If you want the schedule to be as gettable as possible, you’d prefer the weaker, more beatable opponents while getting homefield advantage in the tougher games. That part couldn’t have worked out better for Carolina. They got three winnable road games outside of the division.
The other plus to this split is the fact that the two most intrusive fan bases are going to be hosting the Panthers. Only the Cowboys rival the presence of the Steelers and the Packers on the road, and the Eagles are probably up there as well. Bank of America Stadium is always flooded with opposing fans when those teams are in town, but that isn’t going to be a problem this season. The teams coming to Carolina don’t travel quite as well, so the Bank should stay heavily in favor of the Process Blue.
The Panthers are going to need to pull off some upsets next season to compete for the NFC South. It’s going to be an uphill battle, but the fact that the softer part of their schedule fell on the road does help their chances of overachieving.
