Fairweather Panthers fans will be tested this season. After finishing 5-11 last year and then seeing so many important players either retire, sign elsewhere in free agency or get cut, the 2020 season looks as daunting as any in recent memory for this franchise.
What are their chances of making the playoffs this year? Not great.
ESPN ran 20,000 simulations for this upcoming season using their Football Power Index (FPI) prediction model. Things look good for the Chiefs, who have a 21% chance of repeating as Super Bowl champions according to their projections.
As for Carolina, the simulations had them winning an average of just 5.6 games and making the playoffs just 7% of the time. The only teams with worse odds were Washington (6%) and Jacksonville (4%). Finishing with the third-worst record in the league would be hard to swallow. It would also not low enough to land them the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft and a chance to pick a new franchise quarterback.
Unless they tank or suffer a lot of serious injuries, these Panthers will be bad but not Trevor Lawrence bad.
