After going 15-1 and making the SuperBowl, the Panthers were one of if not the most disappointing team in the league last season as they won just 6 games. Will they have a bounceback season? Will they get back into the playoffs?
What went wrong for the Panthers last season? A lot of things. Cam Newton went from winning league MVP to not even throwing for 20 TDs and only completing 53% of his passes, the worst mark in the league. The offensive line played far worse, and the secondary struggled after the departure of Josh Norman. However, despite all of that there are reasons why Panther fans should be optimistic about this years team.
Last season 6 of the 10 Panthers losses were by three points or less, those are games that could have easily gone the other way. This shows that they were far more competitive than their 6-10 record indicated.
Three of Cam Newtons three favorite targets were Greg Olsen (6’5), Kelvin Benjamin (6’5) and Devin Funchess (6’4).Those guys will make their fair share of jump ball catches, but none of those guys are exactly known for being fast, they badly lacked speed in their receiving core. Sure they had Ted Ginn, but he’s more of a straight line speed guy opposed to a good consistent route runner. They needed someone who can get open quickly and make plays, now Christian Mccaffrey will do just that. Not only will Mccaffrey improve the Panthers running game, he’ll also help out the Panthers passing game, as he’s an excellent route runner who’s very hard to tackle in open space. He’ll make life much easier for Cam Newton.
This team recently went 15-1 and made the SuperBowl, sure they missed the playoffs last season but this is far from a laughing stock franchise, they’ll be back in the postseason. As for Cam Newton, he’ll perform better than he did last season. Should we expect him to win MVP again? No, but we shouldn’t expect two disappointing seasons in a row from a player of his caliber.