The Carolina Panthers wound up with their seventh straight losing campaign last year, but they did take some positive steps forward at the end of the year. After looking like a bust for most of his first two NFL campaigns, 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young showed massive improvement late in the year, finishing the season with the three best games of his season but also his career, throwing multiple touchdowns in all three games, something the young QB had done just once in his previous 25 starts.
Young appears to be on the rise, and the Panthers went out and got him a potential No. 1 receiver in Tetairoa McMillan with the eighth overall pick. Adam Thielen, who turns 35 this month, was the only Panthers receiver to top 525 yards in either of Young’s first two NFL campaigns. If McMillan can be a long term top option for Young and Carolina, that’d go a long way in the quarterback’s development. McMillan is really the only big addition to the offense this year, in part because the team’s offensive line graded out pretty well and much better than expected. The Panthers could be above average offensively in 2025.
The big question is on defense, however. The Panthers ranked 32nd in the NFL in scoring defense in 2024. As a result, Carolina gave out $132 million in free agency to defensive players while also using draft picks in Rounds 2-5 on that side of the ball. Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown join a defensive line that’s been anchored by Derrick Brown, who only played one game last year following a Pro Bowl campaign in 2023. Patrick Jones will attempt to boost the team’s edge rush alongside Day 2 picks Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen, while Tre’von Moehrig got the biggest deal of all the team’s free-agent acquisitions to be a new starter at safety. Will those moves be enough? That remains to be seen, but that side of the ball really has nowhere to go but up, especially after a very active offseason.
We’re going to take a quick look at the Panthers’ 2024 season and the rest of their offseason moves before getting into their track record in NFL futures over the last five years. After that, you can find the odds available at top sportsbooks for their 2025 win total along with Super Bowl and playoff odds as well as key player props to know. Finally, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of betting on the Panthers in 2025 and give out our best bets.
2024 Carolina Panthers season review
- Regular season: 5-12 (Third, NFC South)
- Playoffs: Missed
- Missed playoffs for seventh straight season (tied for second longest active NFL drought)
- Last in NFL in opponent points per game (31.4) and opponent yards per game (404.5)
- Allowed 179.8 rush yards per game in 2024 (most by a team since 1987 Falcons, 182.3)
- Bryce Young: 10 total TDs, no turnovers in final three games (first QB since Drew Brees in 2019 with 10 total TDs and no INTs in team’s final three games)
2025 Carolina Panthers offseason review
| QB | |||
| RB | Miles Sanders, Mike Boone | Rico Dowdle | Trevor Etienne (4) |
| WR | Velus Jones, Deven Thompkins, Jordan Matthews | Hunter Renfrow, Brycen Tremayne | Tetairoa McMillan (1), Jimmy Horn (6) |
| TE | Ian Thomas, Feleipe Franks | James Mitchell | Mitchell Evans (5) |
| OL | |||
| DL | DeShawn Williams, Raequan Williams | Tershawn Wharton, Bobby Brown | Cam Jackson (5) |
| EDGE | Jadeveon Clowney | Patrick Jones, Boogie Basham, Mapalo Mwansa | Nic Scourton (2), Princely Umanmielen (3) |
| LB | Shaq Thompson, Cam Gill, Chandler Wooten | Christian Rozeboom | |
| CB | Lonnie Johnson, Dane Jackson, Caleb Farley | MJ Devonshire | |
| S | Xavier Woods, Jordan Fuller, Sam Franklin | Lathan Ransom (4) | |
| STAFF |
Five-year futures odds and trends
| 2024 | +25000 | 5.5 | Under | 5 | 3rd, NFC South |
| 2023 | +8000 | 7.5 | Under | 2 | 4th, NFC South |
| 2022 | +12100 | 6.5 | Over | 7 | 2nd, NFC South |
| 2021 | +8000 | 7.5 | Under | 5 | 4th, NFC South |
| 2020 | +2000 | 5.5 | Under | 5 | 3rd, NFC South |
Historical betting data via Pro-Football-Reference.
2025 Carolina Panthers futures odds
| Go Over win total | 6.5 (-145) | 6.5 (-130) | 6.5 (-130) | 6.5 (-125) |
| Go Under win total | 6.5 (+120) | 6.5 (+110) | 6.5 (+110) | 6.5 (+105) |
| Win Super Bowl | +15000 | +12500 | +15000 | +12500 |
| Win NFC | +5000 | +6500 | +6000 | +5000 |
| Win NFC South | +425 | +440 | +450 | +410 |
| Make playoffs | +280 | +250 | +270 | +260 |
| Miss playoffs | -350 | -320 | -350 | -340 |
| Win No. 1 seed | +6600 | +5500 | +5000 |
Odds subject to change.
2025 Bryce Young props
| MVP | +8000 | +10000 | +8000 | +10000 |
| Offensive POY | +10000 | +8000 | +20000 | +25000 |
| Most pass yards | +8000 | +8000 | +10000 | +5500 |
| Pass yards O/U | 3200.5 | 3150.5 | 3250.5 | 3200.5 |
| Pass TDs O/U | 18.5 | 17.5 | 18.5 | 18.5 |
Odds subject to change.
Reasons to back the Panthers
The Panthers have had so much turnover in recent years, but they now enjoy some continuity after a strong finish last year. The offense, which added McMillan to the fray, presents the lone offseason upgrade/addition, but it should be a notable one for a team that needs more firepower in the passing game. The offensive line used three different centers in 2024, but the rest of that unit played well last year and is back for more in 2025. That should help Young out a lot after his strong showing at the end of the season, including a five-touchdown game in Week 17.
Carolina’s schedule is also worth noting as the team has just five games against 2024 playoff teams, two of which are divisional matchups with Tampa Bay. The Panthers also start the year with seven straight games against teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year, and none of those opponents finished better than 12th in scoring last year. That should give what was a struggling defense a chance to gel and get off to a better start this season.
Reasons to fade the Panthers
The Panthers dished out over $100 million on defense in free agency for a reason, and that’s because that side of the ball was terrible last year. Unless those new players come in, play well and gel right off the bat, there’s a good chance the Panthers once again have one of the NFL’s worst defenses in 2025. Last year, Carolina gave up 66 more points than the next-closest defense, and the Panthers allowed 6 yards per play for the year as well as 653 more rushing yards than any other team. The defense also allowed the most passing touchdowns in the NFL and intercepted just nine passes. The new faces should help, but none of those additions rated higher than 35th at their position last year, according to PFF rankings, so the Panthers didn’t exactly add All-Pro talent to the defense.
Offensively, that unit made strides late in the year, especially with Young playing well over the final three games of the season. They also added McMillan to the passing game. But for as good as Young looked late, that was only a three-game sample size, and he had only 19 touchdowns to 19 interceptions before that. He played so poorly to open 2024 that he was benched in favor of Andy Dalton. Sure, Young returned as the starter, but he still has to prove he’s “The Guy” for the Panthers beyond this year, otherwise the Panthers may be looking ahead to a 2026 draft class that has several potential starting quarterbacks.
How to bet the Panthers in 2025
- Under 6.5 wins +122 (Caesars)
- Tetairoa McMillan Over 795.5 receiving yards -110 (BetMGM)
I want to be optimistic on the Panthers as I look for someone to challenge the Bucs in the division since I’m not particularly high on Atlanta, but I simply see them as being overvalued in the win total market right now. They have a lot of winnable games on the schedule if their overall talent level has elevated enough to win those games but I’m not sure that it has, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. We’ll need to see several players on that unit perform much better this year, plus Young to make a leap, to get this team in the neighborhood of .500. If you think that’s possible, I’d consider making a ceiling play like +440 to win the division rather than play the heavily-juiced Over for their win total.
Of the eight receivers to be selected top 10 overall since 2018, only Rome Odunze failed to hit 800 receiving yards in his rookie season, and he was the least targeted of any of those eight rookies. I see Tetairoa McMillan’s situation more like Drake London and Garrett Wilson in 2022, and considering the group of pass-catchers on Carolina there’s an outside shot he sees a Malik Nabers-level of targets in his first year. I think he has a pretty good shot of hitting 1,000 yards as a rookie, which is +275 at DraftKings, but either way I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get enough targets to get over this number.