The 4 toughest games on the Carolina Panthers’ 2025 season schedule

It’s been a rough stretch for a franchise that still hasn’t put together back-to-back winning campaigns. That opportunity won’t present itself to the Carolina Panthers in 2025, considering the team has strung together seven consecutive sub-.500 showings dating back to 2018.

Hope springs eternal for Dave Canales’s club, which won four of its final nine games after a dreadful 1-7 start. General manager Dan Morgan was aggressive this offseason in his attempt to improve a team that finished 5-12 and in third place in the NFC South in 2024.

Here’s a look at the four biggest challenges on Carolina’s schedule this upcoming season.

Week 8: vs. Buffalo Bills

Worth noting that each of the Panthers’ first seven opponents finished with a losing record in 2024. The first game that Canales’s squad faces a team with a winning record is a club that has won five straight AFC East titles. The Bills make their first appearance in Charlotte since 2017. That was former Panthers’ DC Sean McDermott’s debut season as Buffalo’s head coach, and one year before the Bills made 2024 NFL MVP Josh Allen a first-round pick in 2018.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) makes an adjustment at the line during the first quarter of their game against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, December 29, 2024 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.el | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Week 9: at Green Bay Packers

After tangling with Allen and the Bills, the Panthers make their way north to Lambeau Field for the first time since 2020. They expect to see a lot of “Love” in Green Bay, and not the kind they are looking forward to. Carolina has dropped three straight games in this series dating back to 2019, and have lost their last three games at Lambeau Field dating back to 2014. Even more disturbing is that the Panthers own a distressing 2-15 road record since 2023.

Week 13: vs. Los Angeles Rams

Any clash with a Sean McVay team is a challenge, and this late-season tilt in Charlotte will be no exception. The talented Rams come off a 10-7 showing and the club’s first NFC West title since winning Super Bowl LVI in 2021. They were also the team that gave the Eagles the most problems during the 2024 postseason. Quarterback Matthew Stafford remains one of the game’s best, and now he has a new toy in wide receiver Davante Adams.

Week 16: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Panthers clash with their divisional rivals five times in their final eight games. They don’t square off vs. Baker Mayfield and the reigning NFC South champions until Week 16. The teams will also clash in Week 18 at Tampa, and who knows what will be on the line then? The Bucs have reached the playoffs every year since 2020, the last four as division champions. Over that span, the club owns a 9-1 mark vs. Carolina and have won five straight meetings.

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