Eagles schedule preview: Panthers

When and where: Week 6 at home

Key additions: EDGE Jaelen Phillips, LB Devin Lloyd

Key subtractions: C Cade Mayes, DT A’Shawn Robinson, RB, Rico Dowdle

Last season: Were the second team in four years to win the NFC South with an 8-9 record

The question for this team: Is this team any good? Do they even care?

The rules say that every division has to have a “winner”, and the 8-9 Carolina Panthers, who lost in Week 18 to an imploding Buccaneers team, were deemed the winner of the NFC South. Congratulations. They nearly beat the Rams in the playoffs, which might have said more about the Rams (who then needed OT to beat the Bears) than it did the Panthers.

Bryce Young kind of looked like an NFL QB in 2025, but the Panthers scored just 11 more points than the Jets. The only thing the Panthers excelled at last year was shortening every game. The offense was last in number of drives, 22nd in number of offensive snaps (which helped their defense face the 9th fewest plays against), 21st in pass attempts, 27th in yards per attempt, with Bryce Young 30th among 33 qualified QBs in Intended Air Yards Per Attempt.

The 2025 Panthers were not really interested in actually trying to play football. The 2026 team doesn’t seem to be either. Tet McMillian was the only Panther with more than 400 receiving yards, Carolina’s biggest additions to their WR room were John Metchie and his 686 career yards, and a Josh Heupel WR.

Devin Lloyd and Jaelen Phillips (when he’s healthy) should improve the defense, but this is an offense that scored fewer than 14 points seven times last year. You’d need the 1985 Bears defense to win with that kind of output. 

While the Panthers did pick up Bryce Young’s fifth year option, putting him under contract for 2027 for a guaranteed $26M, they are–correctly–not expected to sign him to a contract extension this offseason. 

The Carolina Panthers are just going through the motions, knowing that they are going to need a new QB but not in a position to get one, and in a division where even a half assed effort can get you a home playoff game.

But months away from this game, we can point to it being a “trap” game. This game is a week after the Eagles play in London, and a week before hosting the Cowboys. The NFL usually gives teams a bye after flying back from Europe, over the past three years 16 teams had a bye while 11 did not. Over the past two seasons jet lagged teams went 2-5. But in 2023 they went 4-0, so it’s not a Herculean challenge to overcome.

Meanwhile, the Panthers will be coming off their bye. This is pretty unfair scheduling.