NFL Betting Online: Can the Panthers duplicate their late season run from 2014 or are they the team that floundered through the first half of last year?
2014 Season Record: 7-8-1 SU, 8-8 ATS, 5-11 O/U
2015 Regular Season Wins Total: 8.5, +110 O, -130 U
Odds to Win Super Bowl: +4153
Odds to Win NFC: +1958
Odds to Win Division: +181
The Panthers staged an improbable run to the playoffs last season, winning their final four regular season games to claim the top spot in the NFC South for a second straight season. The Panthers probably felt like the tallest midget with their 7-8-1 record in the underachieving division.
The big question entering 2015 is what Panthers team will we see? The one that ended the season playing its best football or the one that won just three of its first 12 games.
Quarterback Cam Newton was at his best during the last two months of the 2014 season and the Panthers rewarded him with a lucrative deal that’ll keep him terrorizing NFC South defenses for the next five years.
Newton has enough pieces around him to make the offense click but this is his team. And as he goes so go the Panthers. A talented group of tall receivers will give opposing defenses nightmares and a healthy backfield of Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert should take the ball out of Newton’s hands.
The Panthers didn’t do much in free agency and their top of the draft selections were puzzling, which makes us wonder if they did enough to keep up with the rest of the division.
Their biggest loss of the offseason was defensive end Greg Hardy, who also happened to be the team’s biggest headache. His skills as a pass rusher will definitely be missed and the Panthers haven’t done much to address that situation.
The defense carried the Panthers last season and should do so again in 2015 with a formidable defensive line and linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis, who are both classified as elite performers by Pro Football Focus.
This could be the most talented team in a much improved division, but no matter how impressive their December rally was, it’s hard to overlook how bad the Panthers were for most of last season. Throw in a lack of big-name free agents and a puzzling top of the draft and it’s hard to view Carolina as a playoff contender.
KEY ADDITIONS: OT Michael Oher, CB Teddy Williams, WR/KR Ted Ginn, S Kurt Coleman, CB Charles Tillman.
KEY LOSSES: DE Greg Hardy, RB DeAngelo Williams, OT Byron Bell, S Thomas DeCoud.
Carolina survived to win the NFC South last season simply because someone had to. Quarterback Cam Newton and a stingy defense will keep them in many games, but did the Panthers do enough to keep up with the rest of the division? At +181 the Panthers are projected to finish behind the Falcons and that won’t get them into the postseason.
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