{"id":650023,"date":"2026-01-03T06:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/650023\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T06:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:34:24","slug":"panthers-have-2-paths-to-make-the-playoffs-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/650023\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers have 2 paths to make the playoffs: Here\u2019s how"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TAMPA, Fla. (WBTV) &#8211; The Carolina Panthers have been in the playoff hunt for weeks now, and it\u2019s come down to do-or-die time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Entering the final weekend of the NFL\u2019s regular season, the Panthers have two paths to make the playoffs. Both would require them to win the NFC South.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If they beat the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay on Saturday &#8212; yes, Saturday, the NFL <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2025\/12\/29\/panthers-buccaneers-game-moved-with-trip-playoffs-line\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2025\/12\/29\/panthers-buccaneers-game-moved-with-trip-playoffs-line\/\">moved the game<\/a> to Jan. 3 &#8212; the Panthers will make the playoffs for the first time since the 2017 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If the Panthers do not beat the Buccaneers, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2025\/12\/30\/panthers-chance-make-playoffs-just-got-whole-lot-better\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2025\/12\/30\/panthers-chance-make-playoffs-just-got-whole-lot-better\/\">still have a chance<\/a>. All they would need would be for the Falcons to beat the Saints on Sunday. Either a Panthers or a Falcons win would get Carolina in &#8212; both do not have to happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">For the visual people, here is a simple breakdown of how the Panthers would end their postseason drought.<\/p>\n<p>Panthers clinch NFC South if:Scenario 1:Panthers beat (or tie) BuccaneersScenario 2:Panthers lose to BuccaneersFalcons beat SaintsBucs clinch NFC South if:Scenario 1:Buccaneers beat PanthersSaints beat Falcons<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Because the Panthers have a fallback option if they lose, their chance to win the NFC South division title and thus make the playoffs is fairly high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">NFL.com\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/standings\/playoff-picture\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/standings\/playoff-picture\">Playoff Picture<\/a>\u201d gave them a 76% chance to make the playoffs. Sportsbooks also like Carolina\u2019s odds, with the Panthers set as big favorites to win the division ahead of Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>Time\/channel info<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As mentioned above, this weekend\u2019s Panthers-Buccaneers game was moved from Sunday, Jan. 4 to Saturday, Jan 3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Saturday\u2019s game will be broadcast to a national audience on ESPN and ABC, with a 4:30 p.m. EST kickoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In case it becomes relevant, Sunday\u2019s Falcons-Saints game will be broadcast on Fox at 1 p.m. EST. That game will be available locally across the vast majority of both North Carolina and South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">As of Friday morning, FanDuel listed the Panthers as three-point <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/football\/nfl\/carolina-panthers-@-tampa-bay-buccaneers-35084980\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/football\/nfl\/carolina-panthers-@-tampa-bay-buccaneers-35084980\">underdogs<\/a> to the Buccaneers. The Falcons were three-point <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/football\/nfl\/new-orleans-saints-@-atlanta-falcons-35084965\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/football\/nfl\/new-orleans-saints-@-atlanta-falcons-35084965\">favorites<\/a> over the Saints.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"The Panthers would make the playoffs with a win over the Bucs, or a Falcons win against the...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/WNJJKBGXARC27LJ3OQWBFWAKDE.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>The Panthers would make the playoffs with a win over the Bucs, or a Falcons win against the Saints.(Jacob Kupferman | AP)<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/sports\/nfl\/panthers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/sports\/nfl\/panthers\/\">Click here for more Panthers coverage<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WBTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WBTV) &#8211; The Carolina Panthers have been in the playoff hunt for weeks now, and it\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[223,210,16122,211,2956,2364,235,3481,12000,7070,224,1384,7,853,94506,1123,1543,2634,896,88,854,6,84,883,43460,6714,236,14861,94508,94507,359,4781,397,1619,447,10074,327,9,4290,209,88475,18494,5870,4377],"class_list":["post-650023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-atlanta","tag-bay","tag-beat","tag-buccaneers","tag-bucs","tag-can","tag-carolina","tag-chance","tag-chances","tag-division","tag-falcons","tag-final","tag-football","tag-game","tag-get-in","tag-how","tag-lose","tag-make","tag-new-orleans","tag-news","tag-nfc","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-no","tag-nola","tag-odds","tag-panthers","tag-path","tag-paths","tag-play-offs","tag-playoffs","tag-postseason","tag-saints","tag-scenario","tag-scenarios","tag-score","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-still","tag-tampa","tag-tb","tag-title","tag-update","tag-win"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115829779416208878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650023","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=650023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}