How Ohio State, Jennifer Lopez & NFL schedule could help Panthers make the Super Bowl

The Carolina Panthers have made it to the Super Bowl twice in franchise history, and each time there has been a specific trend that preceded Carolina making it to the Big Game.

Each time the Panthers have made a Super Bowl appearance in the past, three very specific things occurred before Carolina eventually got there.

Those three things are: Ohio State winning a national title during the previous campaign when the Panthers had a losing record, Carolina opening the following season with a game versus the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Jennifer Lopez filing for divorce.

Well, as it turns out, all three of those things have happened ahead of the Panthers' 2025 campaign. Ohio State won the national title earlier this year, the Panthers play the Jags in Week 1, and J-Lo divorced Ben Affleck.

Panthers Super Bowl appearance confirmed.

In all seriousness, the Panthers are clearly one of the long shots to even sniff the Super Bowl in 2025. That said, they're at least in a better position to make some noise than they were last year.

That's because there's momentum for quarterback Bryce Young, who bounced back beautifully late last season after being benched for Andy Dalton earlier in the campaign.

Furthermore, the Panthers have invested heavily into their defense, which was a major problem in 2024.

Even with all that, we wouldn't bet on the Panthers making it to the Super Bowl. Young remains unproven and there's no guarantee he'll build on what he did, and we have no clue how all of the pieces will fit on defense.

What we do know is that NFL teams can make massive leaps out of nowhere on a yearly basis, just like the Washington Commanders did last season, so anything is possible.

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