NFL schedule release: A game-by-game breakdown of the Panthers' 2026 schedule
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Welcome in everyone
You're watching WRAL News Plus
I am Luis Fernandez
That is Chris Lee and we are here today to
talk about the Carolina Panthers and the new schedule
The NFL has officially released the 2026-2027 schedule
Happy release day Chris
Absolutely I'm excited to see what happens uh with the
schedule and of course seeing what the Panthers could possibly
do for the 2026 season
Without further ado let's just go ahead and get into
it so that folks have an
Opportunity to see what's going on
Um we made a nice little PowerPoint for you because
that's the kind of production quality you get over here
Um let's get started with week one
We'll go week by week
They will open things up with a home game against
the Chicago Bears
Chris why is this game so fascinating Two number 1
overall picks right The Carolina Panthers traded the number 9
pick in 2023 to go up to get the number
1 from the Chicago Bears
So they could get Bryce Young and then the next
year of course the Panthers uh have the worst record
in the league
So then the Bears get their number one pick and
they got Caleb Williams
So those two guys locking horns going against each other
there
Their their fates are are intertwined uh if you will
um I remember a tie game one time between the
Carolina Panthers and the the Cincinnati Bengals and that tie
game determined the entirety of both postseasons for
Uh for the teams it's the ties that bind us
in this situation the ties that bind the Carolina Panthers
and the Chicago Bears
Week two first divisional matchup of the season they will
play at the Atlanta Falcons
Thoughts on this one Chris Panthers usually get the Falcons
early on
Uh it didn't happen last year uh but this uh
upcoming year they will be at the Falcons early on
Definitely a winnable game for the Panthers
We'll have to see what happens
With the Bears a chance that the Panthers start the
season off 2-0 if they're on their game
Louis the Bears were a team that was very turnover
Uh they they got a lot of turnover luck
Their defense was able to cause those turnovers
Curious to see if that carries over
And the Falcons are in this weird position where there's
a bit of a rebuild going on
What does that look like It's gonna be interesting to
see how all of that works out
Is it Tua Is it Michael Pennox I don't know
Week 3
They're gonna go across conference now to the Cleveland Browns
and the Browns as an AFC North aficionado between the
two of us are in a really interesting position where
you're really seeing them start to build some key components
there
Their offensive line is improving
Their defense is always gonna be great with Miles Garrett
They they picked up some really good pieces in the
draft
Especially an offense at wide receiver Harold Fanning at tight
end but what's the quarterback situation look like Is this
uh Shado Sanders' team Is this Deshaun Watson's team that
there's gonna be a lot to be determined about the
Browns that the Panthers won't know honestly until the season
gets started
The very first time we saw Shado Sanders play in
a pro football game was actually a preseason game at
Bank of America stadium where he looked pretty good uh
in that game and so hey maybe he has some
good luck against the Panthers
We'll have to see what the Browns look like but
I feel like the Panthers uh come in with a
little bit more uh of of a set team than
what the Browns do
This is a winnable game for the Panthers but of
course the Browns can also win at home
All right let's go ahead and go to week 4
and for the first time this season they will have
a Sunday Night Football game
Uh they will have a primetime game which would tie
the amount of uh regular season prime
Tying games they had last year uh they will be
hosting Sunday Night Football against the Detroit Lions a team
that you know for really with all the talent they
had you really thought they would have made the playoffs
but they finished outside of the postseason
Thoughts on this one Chris
Two teams with big cats as their uh as their
mascots but both teams with something really big to prove
uh this upcoming year
Panthers want to make sure that they can show they
can continue winning
They're used to uh win loss win loss win loss
type of seasons when they were
Winning a lot of losses uh before that and like
you said the Lions kind of had a disappointing year
last year
They want to get back to the top
That's a very talented team
The the Panthers will be playing
That's gonna be a fun one at Bank of America
Stadium
Um if things are going well if they are uh
winning some of these winnable games let's like if you
just look at here I'll pull this up again so
everyone can see let's say they lose to the Bears
that's a solid team
Let's say they beat the Falcons beat the Browns both
games on the road but both very winnable games
You're looking at 2 and 1 against the
Lions going into Sunday Night Football that could be an
electric atmosphere in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium
All right week 51 of my favorite weeks of the
entire year it's the bye week the bye week um
you know normally I don't like to give byeweeks too
much thought here Chris but uh week 5 for the
bye week your thoughts on that It's very interesting and
and maybe they get it because they're gonna be 4
preseason games for the Panthers instead of the normal 3
because they're gonna be in the Hall of Fame game
but last year they had the late bye week I
think week
12 or 13 uh before they had their bye so
it's really the reverse
I like bye weeks to be right there in the
middle between weeks 8 and week 11 um so it'll
be interesting to see what happens more so on the
back end of the season because you don't necessarily need
a break after just 4 games right The the tricky
part is gonna be what do injuries look like for
the Carolina Panthers
Um that's when I look at buys it's about breaking
bad momentum
It's about taking some time to rest um and you
hope they don't need a whole bunch of bad momentum
and time to rest after a month of football but
hey
You know um we'll see what happens here
OK so bye week is over
The team has 4 games
We'll go to week 6 here at the Philadelphia Eagles
and Chris I think this is where the the new
schedule for the Panthers based on winning the NFC South
this is where things are gonna get really challenging because
you're facing these teams that were at the top of
their respective divisions
Here's the thing right right there where you have 2
games right there against the Lions and then against the
Eagles two teams that's been at the top of the
NFC for the last couple of years of course
The Lions had a down year last year but you
have a game that's gonna be on prime time and
then another game that people will be paying a lot
of attention to because it's the Eagles right Can the
Panthers handle that pressure This is a young team
Bryce Young has he had two big back to back
games like that in his career I don't think so
right So now you look at that you have a
bye week in between that but essentially the two games
that you're gonna play back to back are two huge
games that's gonna determine a lot in the NFC
That will be a very big proving game for the
Panthers
We'll have to see how they perform in that
What does the national landscape look like for the Carolina
Panthers after that game That's gonna be really really interesting
OK week 7 now we've gone about what 5 weeks
here uh between divisional games and all of a sudden
boom you're back with the divisional game
The team that you were kind of going head to
head with for the NFC South championship home against the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Thoughts on this one Yeah Bucks normally is the schedule
towards the end of the year for the Carolina Panthers
right now they get them early
Uh I like this positioning for them
Uh if you lose at the Eagles get a chance
to come back home and prove it against a divisional
rival you'll be up for that
Uh and there's a couple of games that they wish
they would have or one game they wish they would
have had back versus the Bucks and that was the
one in Tampa last year uh in week 18
So uh I like that positioning for the Panthers right
there to be able to come back home uh to
have that against a divisional rival
This is a really meaty part of your schedule that
you're seeing here
Week 80 not a lot of rest
Look so you go so let's think about this for
a second here right You have that byeweek
Then you play at the Philadelphia Eagles who say what
you will about the Eagles in recent uh you know
kind of ups and downs of last season but obviously
they're at the top of the NFC every year these
past few years under Siriani and Jalen Hurts
Uh then you play home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
who are gonna be right there for an NFC South
title and then a short week against the Green Bay
Packers
Chris how are you feeling about that This was the
game that the Panthers wasn't were they weren't supposed to
win this one this past year at Green Bay right
This was essentially to me Dave Canales' best coaching job
of his career because they won that simply because of
the way he game planned the game and a little
bit of luck from uh the coin flip right because
he won the coin flip he knew where he wanted
to kick off and have uh the ball at a
at a certain point of the game and it worked
out in his favor at the end of the game
Green Bay is gonna be ready for it
They're gonna come back with a with a little bit
of a vengeance but also the Panthers should be on
paper should be a little bit better than what they
were last year
I think this is gonna be a really good matchup
and a tough turnaround for the Panthers off of just
4 days' rest
What I'll be curious about is this game for the
Panthers it felt very much like they played a certain
style of football last year in order to win this
game
Well I think when a team goes from being good
to being great is when you
Can play your style no matter who the opponent is
This this stretch is really gonna tell you a lot
about where the Panthers are in their development under Canalis
under Bryce Young in the first half of the season
two big time uh uh primetime games right there
How do they handle that pressure as well You know
the the national conversation the national narrative isn't what wins
and loses games but there will be a narrative around
the Carolina Panthers
After these 1st 8 weeks of the season you can
guarantee that
OK let's go and go to the back half of
the season
Uh golly this is this is when this is once
again when that that NFC South division champ schedule really
starts to you really feel it uh a home game
against the Denver Broncos
Hey West Coast going to East Coast you gotta like
that but this is a team that you know is
a Bo Nix injury away from potentially being in the
Super Bowl
This is where you see how tough the Panthers
Schedule is so far this year if the Broncos of
2025 are the same Broncos of 2026 yes it's at
home and the Panthers will have that but Sean Payton
loves coming to the Bank of America Stadium and loves
trying to get wins at Bank of America Stadium being
the former uh Saints head coach um but he has
uh his Broncos humming over the last couple of years
right So this will be a big time game to
see if the Panthers can come at home win a
big time game there at home versus a team that
was a legit
Super Bowl candidate and literally like if Bo Nix doesn't
get hurt I mean they may even win the Super
Bowl exactly um that one thing to keep an eye
on with the Broncos I think we'll learn a lot
about that team ahead of this week 9 matchup
Last year they were very good in one possession games
They won a lot of one possession games
The law of averages oftentimes that kind of comes back
to get you the next season around
So we'll see what that looks like there
OK let's continue uh with the Panthers schedule here Luis
Fernan
Is Chris Lee
You're watching WRL News Plus Week 10 another divisional matchup
at the Saints
Oh the Saints they kind of had the Panthers' number
last year Chris
They did uh and it was because of their their
new quarterback man
Like he kind of came out of nowhere right Tyler
It's it's one of those things like you didn't expect
this guy and the Panthers uh wish they would have
had both of those games back
I really hope that the guys that uh are playing
with the Panthers this year take that buckle up and
have a lot of uh
Motivation going into New Orleans to try to get that
win but that's gonna be a tough environment
The Panthers don't typically win at New Orleans
Tough back to back games right there once again for
the Panthers
Who would you rather have a quarterback Tyler Shuck or
Bryce Young Let's move on to the next game
Let's move on to the next game
One thing that one
Hey week 11 uh another another uh cross conference match
up here against the uh the division that they are
playing in the AFC uh the AFC North the Baltimore
Ravens
My question for this one are the Ravens healthy Is
Lamar Jackson's healthy and humming Is Derrick Henry you know
still running like he Has been over the course of
his career as he started to slow down
I know a lot about the Ravens at this point
You know one of the things I wanna see right
because uh the first two games I ever went to
as a Panthers fan as a kid was 99-ish versus
the Rams sitting up top
That was uh the Showtime Rams
They were amazing and uh they beat the Panthers like
you know nobody's
Business right Panthers got a win at home
I was able to to witness that this year
And the other game I went to was around 20
I guess 11 or so
Had a chance to meet the original Catman but the
Panthers got beat by the Ravens pretty bad in that
game as well
No it was it's 2009 before Cam Newton was there
um and they they got beat pretty bad uh by
the Ravens that year
Um I wanna see the Panthers get a win versus
the Ravens
This will be a big time team to get a
win versus another uh proven team that you're gonna have
to put it together against and also a proven quarterback
This will be a big test for their defensive line
and their new edge rushers
It will be in these other games but against somebody
like uh Lamar Jackson who can scramble and make sure
that pocket you know kind of disintegrates and and moves
around how can you make sure you corral him keep
them together and try to get some sacks and make
sure that they don't
Get any yards on the ground
All right
Week 12 another primetime game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Does it get any easier
does not get any easier right there
It's gonna be big
I think the big thing for these Monday Night Foot
for these uh primetime games especially Monday Night Football is
that you don't get beat uh by a bunch of
by a bunch of possessions right Like you don't wanna
lose 27 to 3 in prime time because as you
talked about earlier that national narrative on you will stick
with you uh based off of those primetime games
I think about that
49ers game with those turnovers in the red zone and
things like that
Week 13 at the Minnesota Vikings is 9 playing Is
Kyler Murray playing What what does this one look like
That's gonna be interesting
I think the Panthers if if you look at any
uh home away games that they should get that's probably
one that you need to go in there and try
to get that as well
This is gonna be a 4:25 kickoff so more people
will probably be watching this as well
Uh go back you know return from the Monday Night
Football game get a win on the road
Justin Jefferson uh
Jettis versus JC Horn
That's gonna be a fun matchup
Week 14 versus the Saints kind of feels like uh
like you said earlier you know take care of business
um don't you know uh kind of lose your cool
a little bit when you're playing a divisional opponent like
the Saints
Yeah make sure that you uh get the win
You you're supposed to get the win at home last
year versus Tyler Chuck
You did not
All right week 15 now let's see here versus the
Cincinnati Bengals
Hey just like with the week 11 versus the Ravens
is
Joe Burrow healthy at this point of the season
That's a big question I think that most people will
have um and I think that could end up being
a huge difference for the uh Carolina Panthers
We gotta turn this back to you because you're a
Bengals fan
So you know what do you think about this game
and this matchup in week 15 Um is if the
Bengals' defense is average like middle of the league or
better I think this Bengals team is very dangerous
And if Joe Burrow Burrow is healthy that's offense that's
the key yeah very dangerous offense if if that's what's
Going on these two teams have played each other a
lot in recent years despite the fact that they're in
different conferences
Um you know the Bengals historically have finished season strong
recently
Uh so is this one of those ones that's that's
fair
So this could be a matchup we're looking at two
teams that are starting to gain steam and move in
a good direction
Week 16 we're coming around the corner here now
Back to back AFC North matchups that's some smash mouth
football you'll be facing at the Pittsburgh Steelers
It'll be tough
Um you have to see what their quarterback situation is
looking like
Maybe Aaron Rodgers is back
We just don't know
But the thing I'm interested in Rico Dowdell the rematch
right He wanted the long term extension
He wanted the money to stay with the Carolina Panthers
and they didn't give it to him
And now he has a chance to possibly get his
revenge
We saw the revenge he got against the Dallas Cowboys
when they came to 200 yard Bank of America Stadium
2 touchdowns
Book it
That that that feels like
Very Rico Dowdell-esque
Week 17 a matchup against the Super Bowl champions towards
the end of the year
If the Panthers are in the position that you you
hope they would take this year this is a game
that would be pivotal for the NFC playoffs
Another late season home game versus the Seahawks just like
they had last year
Sorry about that
Did not mean to do that uh but that's gonna
be an interesting one
They need to make sure they bring all of their
might and hopefully they're healthy
People can see our face but let's make sure they
see the schedule here really quick
Last regular season game
Versus the Atlanta Falcons
Now you know if the preseason prognosticators are right here
this is potentially a nice divisional matchup to have at
the end of the season with the Falcons
I think it's interesting you you book in the seasons
almost you know with Val Falcons week 2 versus the
Falcons week 18 versus the Falcons
If the Falcons start off not so good it'll be
interesting to see how they get better throughout the year
and what team shows up in week 18
Something that just looking at the schedule quickly that I
noticed here
I think this would be huge if the Panthers are
playing well
Look at these last 5 games home home away home
home
Having 4 of the last 5 games in Charlotte if
the Panthers are in a position to uh make the
playoffs again to potentially compete for the division title again
that could be very big for them
They are away a lot at the beginning of the
season and as you said right there that's an advantage
for them the last 5 weeks of the season
All right I wanna go ahead and take a second
here to to recap for everyone who's
Just joining us now we'll go through this pretty quickly
Uh week 1 Carolina Panthers versus the Chicago Bears
Week 2 at the Falcons
Week 3 at the Browns
Week 4 versus the Lions on Sunday Night Football
Week 5 there's a bye
Week 6 at the Eagles
Week 7 versus Tampa Bay
Week 8 at Green Bay Thursday Night Football that middle
of the season stretches
Oh that is tough versus the Broncos at the Saints
versus the
Ravens this is like a really hard two month stretch
for the Carolina Panthers at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at
the Minnesota Vikings versus the Saints versus the Bengals at
the Steelers versus the Seahawks versus the Falcons
Chris Lee any kind of like final thoughts you want
to say about what you're seeing here with this new
schedule Tough middle of the road for for the Panthers
Uh we'll see what type of team they are and
if they are you know the type of if their
offseason acquisitions both in free agency and
In the draft get them to that next level
They want to prove that they can be a winner
That middle of the season will determine it
Also I just want to say maybe the beginning of
the season helps them out in the preseason because they
have 4 opportunities for their young guys to get reps
the Hall of Fame game in 3 preseason games 1
at Buffalo 1 at Jacksonville and then at home in
Houston to finish everything out
Looking at this schedule uh I think this is a
really good reminder that oftentimes teams that make big leaps
Have kind of coming down to earth seasons the next
year and a big reason why is just because of
how much more difficult your schedule gets when you finish
at the top of your division uh the AFC North
in its entirety the NFC North in its entirety you
know those NFC South teams you hope they're gonna get
better you you hope they're gonna get better
The Seahawks the Eagles the Broncos this is some really
at least on paper
For stiff competition for the Carolina Panthers
Some of the odds Chris reflects that uh right now
based on the different sports books you look at the
Panthers have the 3rd best odds out of 4 teams
to win the NFC South
Uh the uh sports books like the Bucks and the
Saints more than them
Uh they also have the 12th best odds to win
the NFC
Remember that's out of 16 teams
So the last thing I'll bring up here Chris for
you is right now the essential
Over under win total for the Panthers is 7.5 wins
over the course of the season
Your thoughts on that and just overall how some people
seem to be valuing the Carolina Panthers
Same thing from last year right And they went out
on the field they proved them wrong
Now a lot of that had to do with Rico
Dowdell
Rico Dowdell's not there
So where do they get that production from at running
back Chuba Hubbard's still there
He should be healthy this year
Also how does Bryce Young does he get a little
bit Better he had a decent year because of TA
Outside of TA he really didn't get a lot of
yards the type of yardage you would expect for him
to get for this season
So how can he go from 3000 yards to potentially
4000 yards to help out that passing offense and then
the defense got a little bit better Can they stop
the run better Can they also get off the field
better and create more turnovers The Panthers were very good
at kind of uh keeping uh teams away from scoring
but but they they weren't
They were horrible at getting off the field
Get off the field this year
We'll have to see how that works out for them
Uh Tederoa McMillan a lot of times young wide receivers
make a big leap in their second season and he
he had started off on a pretty good footing already
Uh we'll be curious
Jalen Coker we saw him start to like elevate in
that playoff game against the Rams
Is that trend continue John Mechi with the team now
how does he come back from having cancer and everything
Yeah there's a a lot of questions about this Carolina
Panthers team
Remember last year they finished 8 and 9
Won the NFC South
They have a much more difficult schedule
That's definitely at least in my mind the theme for
what we're seeing today for sure
That's WRL Sports' Chris Lee
I'm Louis Hernandez
Thank you so much for watching us
Uh you can uh tune into anything Panthers related on
pugongyingbo.com uh also on the WRAL YouTube page with Panthers
playbook with him and Dennis Cox uh as well as
just coverage throughout the course of the summer and into
the fall
Chris um happy release day
Yeah excited for the future