{"id":59118,"date":"2025-05-18T04:56:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T04:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/59118\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T04:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T04:56:23","slug":"games-dates-predictions-for-upcoming-season-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/59118\/","title":{"rendered":"Games, dates, predictions for upcoming season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Best NFC 2025 NFL Draft picks<\/p>\n

USA TODAY’s Tyler Dragon breaks down which teams in the NFC drafted the best this year.<\/p>\n

Sports Seriously<\/p>\n

It’s been a tumultuous run for the Carolina Panthers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

David Tepper purchased the franchise in 2018 and things have been turbulent since. Carolina has not won more than seven games in a season during this time. It all came to a head in 2023 when Tepper made headlines for throwing a drink at a fan.<\/p>\n

The team hit the reset button before the 2024 season, hiring Dan Morgan as general manager. He has helped make considerable progress, strengthening the roster over the last two offseasons.<\/p>\n

The Panthers<\/a> finished third in the NFC South with a 5-12 record in 2024, an improvement from their previous league-worst 2-15 finish in 2023.<\/p>\n

Quarterback\u00a0Bryce Young<\/a>\u00a0enters his third NFL season looking to take a significant leap in 2025. It will be pivotal as the Panthers have quietly improved their roster around him, positioning themselves as a sneaky team to watch in the NFC South.<\/p>\n

This year will be Young’s second season with head coach Dave Canales. The decision to hire the former Tampa Bay offensive coordinator could pay dividends as the franchise hopes he can unlock Young’s potential, similar to how he did with Baker Mayfield during his time with the Buccaneers and Geno Smith in Seattle.<\/p>\n

Will Carolina be a surprising team in 2025? Here\u2019s a look at the schedule for Young and the Panthers in 2025.<\/p>\n

Buy Panthers tickets for the 2025 season<\/a><\/p>\n

This section will be updated when the NFL schedule is released on Wednesday, May 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 7: at Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 2: Sunday, Sept. 14: at Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, 4:05 p.m. ET, CBSWeek 3: Sunday, Sept. 14: vs. Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 4: Sunday, Sept. 28: at New England Patriots<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 5: Sunday, Oct. 5: vs. Miami Dolphins<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 6: Sunday, Oct. 12: vs. Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 7: Sunday, Oct. 19: at New York Jets<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 8: Sunday, Oct. 26: vs. Buffalo Bills<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 9: Sunday, Nov. 2: at Green Bay Packers<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 10: Sunday, Nov. 9: vs. New Orleans Saints<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 11: Sunday, Nov. 16: at Atlanta Falcons, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 12: Monday, Nov. 24 (“Monday Night Football”): at San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPNWeek 13: Sunday, Nov. 30: vs. Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 14: BYE WEEKWeek 15: Sunday, Dec. 14: at New Orleans Saints, 4:25 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 16: Sunday, Dec. 21: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>, 1:00 p.m. ET, FOXWeek 17: Saturday, Dec. 27: vs. Seattle Seahawks<\/a> (Time TBD)Week 18: (Jan. 3-4): at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Time TBD)Panthers record prediction 2025<\/p>\n

Record prediction: 8-9<\/p>\n

The NFC South may finally see a change after four seasons. The Buccaneers have positioned themselves as the team to beat in the division, while the Falcons are making a push to challenge their dominance. Meanwhile, the Panthers seem to be gaining momentum heading into the new season.<\/p>\n

Carolina used the eighth overall pick in the 2025 draft to select the top wide receiver, Tetairoa McMillan<\/a>. He will complement Xavier Legette<\/a>, whom the Panthers drafted with the 32nd overall pick last year. To further support Bryce Young, the team signed running back Rico Dowdle<\/a> in free agency, creating a backfield duo with 2024 breakout star Chuba Hubbard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have strong pillars on the defensive side, including Derrick Brown<\/a> and Jaycee Horn<\/a>. However, the unit still has significant weaknesses, ranking last in the league for both points per game allowed (31.4) and yards per play allowed in 2024. They were also 31st in ESPN’s pass-rush win-rate metric; the Panthers selected edge rushers Nic Scourton<\/a> (Round 2, Pick 51) and Princely Umanmielen<\/a> (Round 3, Pick 77) to address these issues in the recent draft.<\/p>\n

As a result of finishing third in the NFC South last season, the Panthers will face the Cowboys, Packers and Jaguars. Additionally, they have the advantage of two divisional matchups against the rebuilding Saints.<\/p>\n

If they can find a way to split or sweep the Bucs and Falcons in the division they will be in a great position to improve on their record.<\/p>\n

Carolina has the seventh-easiest schedule in 2025 per Sharp Football Analysis<\/a>. If Carolina continues to develop its young core, the Panthers can make a push for a wild card.<\/p>\n

The NFC South has been one of the weakest divisions in the entire league in recent years. The Panthers have an opportunity to shock the league.<\/p>\n

Panthers’ 2025 opponents<\/p>\n

Here’s the full list of the Panthers’ opponents for 2025:<\/p>\n

HomeAtlanta FalconsTampa Bay BuccaneersNew Orleans SaintsLos Angeles RamsSeattle SeahawksBuffalo BillsMiami DolphinsDallas CowboysRoadAtlanta FalconsTampa Bay BuccaneersNew Orleans SaintsArizona CardinalsSan Francisco 49ersNew England PatriotsNew York JetsGreen Bay PackersJacksonville Jaguars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best NFC 2025 NFL Draft picks USA TODAY’s Tyler Dragon breaks down which teams in the NFC drafted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[220,821,247,265,240,375,390,223,254,1838,1842,210,215,211,214,53,1327,235,260,2567,11579,1751,868,867,877,321,230,229,257,217,207,12,388,224,7,219,2934,1507,27,345,2342,379,212,125,213,226,6911,239,58,1839,216,251,677,679,248,267,246,206,249,55,255,88,6,869,676,245,264,428,236,208,424,397,218,252,238,237,261,2383,9,266,678,209,250,1058,1505,225],"class_list":{"0":"post-59118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-affiliate","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-football","12":"tag-angeles","13":"tag-arizona","14":"tag-arizona-cardinals","15":"tag-atlanta","16":"tag-atlanta-falcons","17":"tag-baker","18":"tag-baker-mayfield","19":"tag-bay","20":"tag-bills","21":"tag-buccaneers","22":"tag-buffalo","23":"tag-buffalo-bills","24":"tag-cardinals","25":"tag-carolina","26":"tag-carolina-panthers","27":"tag-carolinapanthers","28":"tag-chuba","29":"tag-chuba-hubbard","30":"tag-commerce","31":"tag-contains","32":"tag-contains-commerce-or-affiliate-content","33":"tag-content","34":"tag-cowboys","35":"tag-dallas","36":"tag-dallas-cowboys","37":"tag-dolphins","38":"tag-england","39":"tag-espn","40":"tag-espn-inc","41":"tag-falcons","42":"tag-football","43":"tag-francisco","44":"tag-geno","45":"tag-geno-smith","46":"tag-green","47":"tag-green-bay-packers","48":"tag-hubbard","49":"tag-inc","50":"tag-jacksonville","51":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","52":"tag-jaguars","53":"tag-jets","54":"tag-legette","55":"tag-los","56":"tag-los-angeles-rams","57":"tag-mayfield","58":"tag-miami","59":"tag-miami-dolphins","60":"tag-modular","61":"tag-modular-story","62":"tag-national","63":"tag-national-sports","64":"tag-neutral","65":"tag-new","66":"tag-new-england-patriots","67":"tag-new-orleans-saints","68":"tag-new-york-jets","69":"tag-news","70":"tag-nfl","71":"tag-or","72":"tag-orleans","73":"tag-overall","74":"tag-overall-neutral","75":"tag-packers","76":"tag-panthers","77":"tag-patriots","78":"tag-rams","79":"tag-saints","80":"tag-san","81":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","82":"tag-seahawks","83":"tag-seattle","84":"tag-seattle-seahawks","85":"tag-smith","86":"tag-sports","87":"tag-sports-news","88":"tag-story","89":"tag-tampa","90":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","91":"tag-xavier","92":"tag-xavier-legette","93":"tag-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}