CAROLINA PANTHERS 2022 WIN PREDICTION

BY ADAM GREENE

Last year five teams started the NFL season 3-0; the Los Angeles Rams, Las Vegas Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers.

Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, teams that open the year 3-0 have a 75.8 percent chance of making the postseason. The Cardinals and Raiders both landed in the playoffs and the Rams won the Super Bowl. The Broncos and Panthers watched from home. In fairness to the Broncos, they had some injury issues and decided to lean into a rebuild halfway through the year instead of fighting for a Wild Card spot.

The Panthers did not do that. There was no decision to be made about their future first ballot Hall of Fame players with trade value. They did not just give up on their 2021 campaign in the middle of it. They just sucked. They sucked so, so much.

Of their five wins, two were ridiculous upsets that make me, sitting here nearly a year later, still question the very nature of the universe. Somehow the 2021 Panthers team beat the New Orleans Saints 26-7 in Week 2 and knocked off the Arizona Cardinals 34-10 in Week 10. That second one was easily their biggest and best victory of the season. It was also their last one as they lost seven straight games to end 2021.

The only bright spot of the year was seeing Cam Newton brought back to the team and getting a couple of feckless starts. Nothing else was good or worth noting about the 2021 Carolina Panthers except the fact that drafting Christian McCaffrey in the first round of your fantasy football draft is a huge mistake. He started just seven games last season, rushing for 442 yards, a touchdown and recording 343 yards and a touchdown receiving.

CAROLINA PANTHERS

Last season: 5-12

Odds: Over 6.5 wins (-110), Under 6.5 wins (-120)

2022 NFL Draft: Ikem Ekwonu, OT, NC State (Round 1), Matt Corral, QB, Ole Miss (Round 3), Brandon Smith, LB, Penn State (Round 4), Amare Barno, Edge, Virginia Tech (Round 6), Cade Mays, OG, Tennessee (Round 6), Kalon Barnes, CB, Baylor (Round 7)

2022 Additions: Baker Mayfield, QB (trade), Austin Corbett, OG (free agent), Xavier Woods, Safety (free agent), Johnny Hekker, Punter (free agent), Damien Wilson, OLB (free agent), Matthew Ioannidis, DE (free agent), Bradley Bozeman, Center (free agent), Chris Westry, CB (free agent)

Projected Starters

Offense

QB: Baker Mayfield

RB: Christian McCaffrey

WR: DJ Moore

WR: Robbie Anderson

WR: Terrace Marshall, Jr.

TE: Tommy Tremble

FB: Giovanni Ricci

LT: Ikem Ekwonu

LG: Oat Elfein

C: Bradley Bozeman

RG: Austin Corbett

RT: Taylor Moton

Defense

LDE: Brian Burns

LDT: Derrick Brown

RDT: Matt Ioannidis

RDE: Yetur Gross-Matos

WLB: Shaq Thompson

MLB: Damien Wilson

SLB: Cory Littleton

CB: Donte Jackson

CB: Jaycee Horn

SS: Jeremy Chinn

FS: Xavier Woods

Special Teams

PK: Zane Gonzalez

P: Johnny Hekker

PR: Shi Smith

KR: JJ Jansen

PREVIEW

In spite of both the Panthers and Baker Mayfield publicly stating they had no interest in each other at the beginning of the offseason, somehow the former Cleveland Browns No. 1 overall pick managed to land in Carolina. He’s currently competing with the guy that was drafted two spots behind him in the 2018 NFL Draft, Sam Darnold, in a quarterback competition that no one, especially people rooting for the Panthers, can win.

I think it goes without any question that the best QB on the Carolina roster is third round pick Matt Corral. What no one wants to see is Corral get tossed the keys to this moribund franchise until they are long out of the playoff race and Matt Rhule’s head coaching job has either already been terminated or at least seen walking The Green Mile. With all the other disasters, nearly all self inflicted, this franchise has suffered, ruining Corral with some October starts would just be the latest in a long line.

We’re all penciling Mayfield in here as the starter, even though Rhule has stated that he and Darnold are battling it out for the job. The Panthers actually have more money invested in Darnold, paying his entire fifth year option while on being on the hook for part of Mayfield’s. So Rhule can be honest here. The best man between the two can win it before finally being replaced by Corral in December under interim head coach Ben McAdoo.

Running back Christian McCaffrey has stated that “this is the best (he’s) ever felt” and he’s ready to put the “annoying injuries” behind him. That’s great news, but I’m sure he was feeling pretty fantastuc at this point last season before missing 10 full games with injuries. Considering McCaffrey has made a total of 10 starts over the last two seasons, I’m not feeling super confident that he can stay healthy this year. I hope I’m wrong, not just for McCaffrey and the Panthers, but for every person who gets stuck on autodraft in their fantasy football leagues.

For all the talk about Robbie Anderson being disgruntled with the Carolina offense, no one outside of the Panthers should care. Anderson would be no better than the No.3 wide receiver on most teams and wouldn’t even see the field if he played for the Los Angeles Rams, Cincinnati Bengals or Minnesota Vikings. DJ Moore is a real weapon, so hopefully he can at least be a stat machine for his own sake in this dumpster fire offense.

Defensively, there’s nothing scary about Carolina’s crew. This is one of the worst rosters in football and they’ll probably show it every Sunday this season.

There’s plenty of hype surrounding their season opening game hosting the Cleveland Browns with the potential of some kind of Mayfield revenge game. Deshaun Watson will probably be sitting out with a suspension, 6-8 games, so this will likely be Jacoby Brissett or a Josh Rosen who has put up a blistering performance in camp. Either way, I have never in my life felt more confident in a Browns win. I do not see a possible Panthers victory on their schedule until Halloween, and even then I’ll probably pick the Atlanta Falcons to beat them.

The truth is, my prediction below feels high to me. No team in the modern NFL should go winless. The Houston Texans, maybe the only team with a poorer roster than Carolina, won four games a year ago when they should have gone 0-17. The three victories I predicted her would come from stealing one against the above mentioned Falcons, beating the Lions in Charlotte, surprising a hapless Seahawks team in Seattle on Dec. 11 or knocking off a New Orleans Saints squad in Week 18 resting starters because they’ve already secured their playoff spot and can do nothing to change it with a win.

Final record prediction: 3-14

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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