How is it that the 8-9 2025 Carolina Panthers landed squarely in the middle of everybody’s preseason win predictions, skipped leaving anybody confident in their evaluation of the team’s future, yet also
finished the season with a strong and wildly optimistic playoff loss against a legitimate Super Bowl contender in the Los Angeles Rams? Carowinds really has nothing on this squad.
We’re going to dig deep this offseason on Bryce Young’s development, Dave Canales’ tactical acumen, and Ejiro Evero’s personnel usage. We’ll also get into the weeds on cap management, draft strategy, and the state of the roster in advance of the 2026 season. But today is too early for all that.
The Panthers are a team who lived up to expectations in one important way this season. They were a team with many flaws and shaky depth. Destiny be damned, this wasn’t a team that was going to make a deep run in the playoffs. They also exceeded expectations this season in one important way: they were fun.
Say what you will about the quarterback position or in-game decision making of the team, they were fun more often than not. They were competitive. The 2025 Panthers lost six games by more than one touchdown and five of those were to playoff teams. That list necessarily does not include their three-point loss in the playoffs. Their other 12 games were either wins or very close losses. That is stellar work for a team that was supposed to be at least a year away from contending per their own rebuilding plans.
I would have been disappointed in this team if they had only won eight games behind a Young who played consistently the way he did against the Rams or down the stretch of the ’24 season. Instead, I am impressed by how Canales stepped up, despite his own flaws, and led this team to what successes they had. I am impressed that the 2025 draft class performed as well as they did. I am impressed that the offense managed what consistency they did despite the near-constant turmoil and injuries they experienced across the offensive line.
2025 wasn’t the best season of Carolina Panthers football, but I defy anybody to say it wasn’t the best season in at least the last eight years. Kids born after the last Panthers playoff game are hours old today, and not in elementary school. I’ll take that for now.
