Cat Scratch Reader
The Carolina Panthers have finished the preseason winless once again. And by once again, I mean for just the third time since 2009. We’ve mad hay about coincidences between 2025, 2015, and 2003, but we’re going to have a far harder time drawing comparisons between 2025, 2023, and 2009. The fact is that preseason results don’t have a lot of correlation with regular season successes. With that in mind, let’s talk about the Panthers odds to make the playoffs.
FanDuel Sportsbook have the Panthers at +260 to make the playoffs and +10,000 to win Super Bowl LX, the 26th best odds in the league.
Some people may call those long odds and those people are technically correct. With 14 teams making the playoffs, the Panthers have to jump 12 other teams who are favored over them for a wildcard berth or take the NFC South out from under the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-154) and the Atlanta Falcons (+132). And then they’d have to run a gauntlet of either the best or similarly improbable teams in the NFL to reach and win the Super Bowl. Sounds fun for fans, but we’ll all believe it when we see it.
This season is full of too many question marks to fully believe in the 2025 Panthers. There are a lot of reasons to feel good about their chances. They’re deeper up front, defensively. They’re returning pretty much the entire offensive line unit from top to bottom, Bryce Young looks more like the sharp quarterback who finished the 2024 season than the lost one who started it, and the Panthers receiver corps is deeper than ever. That all sounds great.
The core of this team, however, is still shallow. It is bereft of talent thanks to bad drafting and worse free agency strategies courtesy of former general manager Scott Fitterer and former head coach Matt Rhule. Current head coach Dave Canales is still inexperienced. He has one season as a head coach and two as a play caller under his belt. Optimism is a fine thing, but it rings hollow after the losses stack up for too long. We don’t know if he has another trick in his leadership bag.
Long odds are appropriate for this team right now. The 2025 Panthers have the ingredients to flash some magic or to flame out. There’s no real telling what happens next.
FanDuel Sportsbook is conducting FanDuel Futures Day on Tuesday, August 26 where you can get profit boost tokens around various futures markets throughout the day. The markets will be split up throughout the day, but they will include odds to win the Super Bowl and hypothetical Super Bowl matchups, odds to make or miss the playoffs, win totals, division winners, and player milestones. Head over to FanDuel Sportsbook on Tuesday to take advantage of FanDuel Futures Day.
