My Carolina Panthers record prediction for 2022 season? Better than you might expect.
Being a Carolina Panthers fan has been an exercise in futility for most of the past four seasons.
Consecutive records of 7-9, 5-11, 5-11 and 5-12 have caused a lot of consternation, a number of firings and various “Rome wasn’t built in a day” pronouncements.
So if you’re predicting the team’s 2022 record, as I will in this column, the easy way would be to see what Las Vegas oddsmakers believe and trying to match that. In this case, the Panthers’ over-under is set at 6.5 by most bookies, which would mean either a 6-11 or 7-10 record is considered most likely.
But I’m not going there. I’m going somewhere else, to a place possibly laced with foolhardiness, but one that’s a lot of fun to visit.
Let’s call it Optimistic Island, pretend our flight got there on time and with no delays and take up residence there for a moment, shall we?
I’m here to tell you that these 2022 Panthers are going to go 9-8 — four games better than last year’s 5-12 record, and just enough to ensure head coach Matt Rhule gets a fourth season to work on his rebuilding project. I’m figuring the Panthers will enter December with at least a shot at a playoff wild-card spot. I’m believing that Carolina will actually pull off an upset or two.
Yes, it’s a gamble to believe in a team that has gone 22-43 since owner David Tepper bought the franchise. But I choose to believe that the Panthers — who have lost so many close ones over the past four years — have gotten better at quarterback and have a defense that will keep them in most games.
The two most important players on this team will be new QB Baker Mayfield and oft-injured running back Christian McCaffrey. CMC has missed 23 of the Panthers’ past 33 games, and those absences destroyed any semblance of consistency for Carolina’s offense. He’s healthy now, and I’m guessing he will play in at least 12 games this season.
Mayfield won the starting job quickly after Carolina traded for him in early July, and he’s got the moxie and the arm to make things interesting. Mayfield is going to throw some interceptions, and brace yourself for a couple of bad ones, but he can play. He throws a gorgeous deep ball, and he has quickly realized where the Panthers’ bread is buttered and will look for McCaffrey a lot.
There are still problems. The Panthers seem thin on their defensive front seven. The loss of placekicker Zane Gonzalez in the preseason was a difficult one and means that a last-second field goal to win a game will be an iffy thing. Carolina’s defense, in its quest to go from good to great, has to prove it can cause more turnovers. The offensive line, a sore spot for years, still must prove itself.
But there are some pieces here. Not enough to catch Tampa Bay and Tom Brady, but enough to make being a Panther fan not as painful as the last four seasons. I’m going with 9-8.
And if the Panthers end up 1-16 instead, you’re welcome to tease me unmercifully. With all this gray hair, I should have known better, right?
But at the moment, I’m sipping a cold drink on Optimistic Island, enjoying the last rays of a September sun. And there are another couple of beach chairs in a patch of sand nearby, placed under a lone palm tree, if you’d like to join me.
