The 2017 Carolina Panthers season had its ups and downs, but as a whole I would judge it as a success. The Panthers made the playoffs for the fourth time in five years, rebounded from a 6-10 season in 2016 and won 11 games.
Will the 2018 season have the same sort of success rate?
Ultimately, I don’t think so, and here’s why.
The Panthers’ roster is similar. I’ll get to some specifics in a minute, but I think we can agree that the most important players (Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly) remain in place, as do some of the biggest question marks (offensive line, secondary).