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NFL insider predicts Panthers division crown with one major caveat

It’s been some time since the Panthers finished a season with a winning record. An NFL analyst says that current skid will end in 2025 in surprising fashion.
Russell Baxter|
Dec 15, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales reacts in the fourth quarter at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images
Dec 15, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales reacts in the fourth quarter at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

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With the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game (Chargers vs. Lions) roughly three weeks away, NFL predictions from all corners continue to roll in. That includes NFL Network analyst Adam Rank, who had a surprising call when it came to the NFC South.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have captured the top spot in that division four consecutive years dating back to 2021. In fact, they are the only NFC South team to reach the playoffs over that span. Rank has gone out on a limb a bit and has a team dethroning the explosive Buccaneers.

“If Rank’s forecast comes true,” said Anthony Rizzuti of Panthers Wire, “then the Panthers would clinch their first winning season since 2017 and their first division title since 2015. They'd also break a seven-year playoff drought, which currently stands as the longest such streak in franchise history. Each of those seven seasons has come under owner David Tepper, who purchased the team back in 2018. Carolina has gone a combined 36-80 over that span.”

Now there’s certainly been some buzz this offseason when it comes to Dave Canales’s team, which won four of its final nine games in 2024 after a 1-7 start. Led by general manager Dan Morgan, the team was very proactive in free agency—especially when it came to addressing one of the worst NFL defenses in recent memory.

Rank has Canales’s club losing at Jacksonville in Week 1, then rebounding to win four of their next six games. He then predicts that the team will drop five of its next six contests. With a 5-7 record after 12 outings, the Panthers will embark on a four-game winning streak. Despite a loss at Tampa Bay in Week 18, Carolina will finish 9-8 and grab its first NFC South title since the Super Bowl 50 season of 2015.

That prediciton would be about right given the recent record of this division. The Bucs have won the NFC South with an 8-9, 9-8, and 10-7 record, respectively, since 2022.

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Russell Baxter
RUSSELL BAXTER

Russell S. Baxter has been writing and researching the game of football for more than 40 years, and on numerous platforms. That includes television, as he spent more than two decades at ESPN, and was part of shows that garnered five Emmy Awards. He also spent the 2015 NFL season with Thursday Night Football on CBS/NFLN.