The Optimist: Nothing matters more than being here

The Carolina Panthers are in the playoffs. Say that out loud sometime today so that you can hear it in your own voice. It’s been long enough that you might need a minute to really hear it. At 8-9 the Panthers are going to be this year’s “least likely to” in every category in every game in the post season. For teams like the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Philadelphia Eagles, being in the playoffs comes with expectations of success. They have to win a game or two, maybe even the Super Bowl, to keep their fans happy. For the Panthers, it really is just an honor to be here.

The Panthers haven’t been in the playoffs since the 2017 season. They have neither won their division nor a playoff game since 2015. There are as many differences as you can think of between this team and either of those teams, but the only thing they have in common is the only thing that matters: they all made the playoffs. Go ahead and say it again if you’re struggling with the concept. It’s OK if you’re rusty rooting for your own team in January.

How did we even get here?

Over the past several weeks, fans have been split into two camps. One has been hopeful to see a playoff game and didn’t care how the Panthers slipped into the playoffs. The other was worried that the Panthers wouldn’t deserve the chance if they didn’t earn it with a declarative victory. Any one over the Saints, Seahawks, or Bucs in Weeks 15, 17, or 18 would have done. Unfortunately for that second camp, the 7-6 Panthers went 1-3 after their bye in Week 14 and very much slid into the playoffs through a back door tie-breaker in a sad, hapless division.

Over the past many years the Panthers have endured Kyle Allen, P.J. Walker, Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Darnold, and Baker Mayfield being coached by Ron Rivera, Matt Rhule, and Frank Reich. Fans have had to make do with seven win seasons as a highlight, where the playoffs were out of reach by midseason and the future was as uncertain as the quarterback position.

The 2025 Panthers shouldn’t be different.

They have more warts than you can count, somehow making it all the way to wild-card weekend without a simple, resounding answer on Bryce Young that every fans agrees on. The version of the Panthers that was confident and riding a winning streak into the playoffs never materialized. This is not a team that should be expected to succeed. Their first opponent knows that and also knows they cannot underestimate them. The Los Angeles Rams are first up and, having already lost to these Panthers this season, are probably hungry for revenge.

Where are the Panthers going from here?

To the divisional round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs if they can beat the Rams a second time this season. None of that history of bad quarterbacks and worse coaches matters today. The Panthers are here and are truly in one-game-at-a-time territory. Of course, winning is a tall order and one that has to be delivered with flawless execution and boundless luck against one of the best teams in football that has been playing in the best division in football. The Rams and the NFC West are pretty much the opposite of the Panthers and the NFC South, and the opening odds for this game show it.

The Panthers had plenty of opportunities to show they were “for real” this season. Whether it was the Buffalo Bills game, the San Francisco 49ers Monday Night Football game, either of their games against the New Orleans Saints, or in their last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Instead those opportunities accounted for five of their nine losses and, in each of them, their offense showed up flat. That was how Carolina, Young, and Dave Canales responded to raised stakes this season.

The playoffs could be different. Sure, the stakes are higher than ever—lose and they go home for the season, keep (start) winning and bring home the first Lombardi trophy to the Carolinas—but they feel less real than the idea that the Panthers are playing with house money. Nobody at all expects them to beat the Rams. Less than nobody expects them to win the divisional round or advance to the Super Bowl if they do pull off the impossible and win their wild-card game.

When you’re in the “it’s an honor to be here seat,” then all success is gravy. Even just competing hard in a loss can feel like a win and pay huge dividends for the culture and program that Canales is still trying to build.

What if I have zero faith in Bryce Young?

You should rejoice that he gets a big national stage to fall flat on.

You should be thrilled that the Panthers won the NFC South and get a tougher schedule in 2026 because of that.

The Panthers may be playing with house money but Young still hasn’t earned his future. If you have nothing but doubt then you can enter Saturday confident that he’ll fail to perform. If you still cling to hope then there is technically a chance he could find a new level of play on Saturday. Either way, this season and next have increased the difficulty and the amount of attention paid to Young’s play. He’ll step up or fold and that should make the Panthers’ decisions easier, be they made in the 2026 or 2027 offseason.

So what do we do as fans?

Dust off your best wings recipe. Buy more avocados than you think you can eat and make guacamole from scratch. Maybe get a new TV? This is the Panthers Super Bowl, basically. It has been eight or ten years since the Panthers started falling apart, but only two years since they hit the rock bottom that was the Reich and Scott Fitterer fiasco. Somehow, we’re back.

Canales, for all his mistakes, has also shown a lot of promise. He has a shot at being the real deal and we get another shot at seeing him coach a big game this season—a shot that was not promised at any point during this season. Any outcome is a win for Panthers fans this Saturday. A blowout loss, while it will suck to watch, helps identify or underline the problems this team still has. A close loss is a huge win for the building confidence in next season. An actually close win would be thrilling in ways we haven’t experienced since maybe beating the Arizona Cardinals 27-16 in the 2014 wild-card round.

That was the last season where the Panthers won the NFC South and made the playoffs with a losing record. That win in the wild-card round was less expected than any of the results from the 2015 playoffs. The 2025 Panthers are further away from being considered competitive than that 2014 team was, but they also have more signature wins. The 2014 team only beat one team with a winning record, the 2025 Panthers have two wins over then-number one seeds in the Packers and Rams.

Weird things happened to get us here. Weird things conspired to see the Panthers beat the Rams the first time around. It’s going to take weird things to keep us here. I don’t know about y’all, but after years adrift with the likes of the Browns and the Jets, I’ll take rooting for weird things if it means we can dream of winning this year’s Super Bowl for even just one more week.