Carolina Panthers Are This Season's Biggest Surprise

How in the world did we get here?

I’m about to type a sentence that, at the beginning of the year, would have made zero sense to believe: The Carolina Panthers, with two weeks left in the regular season, control their own path to winning the NFC South for the first time in 10 years.

For the first four weeks of the season, it looked like this would be another forgettable year for Carolina: a 1-3 start, punctuated by a 42-13 beatdown at the hands of the New England Patriots. The path to the No. 1 pick in the draft seemed pretty straightforward.

But then the Panthers got a little momentum: wins against the Dolphins, Cowboys and Jets followed. Signs of life, yes, but no one was taking them seriously.

Then a win against the Packers came — at Lambeau Field, no less. Losses came to some beatable teams, but then there was that shocking victory over the Rams, and all of a sudden, people looked at the Panthers as a real threat.

And after beating the Buccaneers Sunday (who have been in free fall for the last month), they can win the NFC South.

Head coach Dave Canales deserves a lot of credit for keeping this team afloat when it looked like the team was falling apart at the scenes. Bryce Young has started to look like a No. 1 pick. Neither the offense or defense is flashy (both are slightly below average), but they are piecing together wins.

Nobody could have seen this happening with the season almost over. But part of what makes the NFL great is that there’s always a team that surprises us and passes expectations.

This year, that’s the Panthers.