Offense: The offense begins and ends with superman himself, Cam Newton. It’s all mental with him. When he plays with swag and confidence within himself, he can be the best player in the NFL. He has to be MVP Cam for this team to be successful, and I believe he can be. Just has to take care of his body. The addition of Christian McCaffery will be huge, as he is both a great running back, and a hell of a receiver, giving Cam another reliable target. The wide receivers are okay, Kelvin Benjamin needs to progress and lose some weight. The rest of the guys are average but we have seen Cam do some great things with average. Greg Olsen, the tight end, continues to be mr. reliable, and Cam’s go to guy. Every year this guy seems to break 1,000 yards and 7+ touchdowns. The o-line is shaky, lets see if the addition of Matt Kalil helps things. Overall, they have some nice pieces, but this offense and team starts and finishes with Cam Newton and his confidence.

Defense: The defense is very solid once again. The defensive line is good, led by Kawann Short and Mario Addison. Vernon Butler, last years first round pick will look to start this year, and I really like the depth there. The linebackers are great when healthy. Luke Kuechly is a top 10 football player in the NFL and by far the best linebacker, he just needs to stay healthy and try to avoid concussions. Thomas Davis has resurrected his career and has been consistently great, while Shaw Thompson is an athletic freak who is great in coverage. All three linebackers can really cover, which is huge in a pass happy NFL. The secondary is good as well. The corners are a little shaky, outside of stud James Bradberry and Captain Munnerlyn. I like Daryl Worley though. Depth isn’t great but the unit has potential.  The safeties have a chance to be really good with two proven guys, Mike Adams and Kurt Coleman. Overall, this defense has a chance to be very good to great, with potential in all three levels of the defense.

 

Schedule

 

Week 1: @49ers: W

Week 2: vs Bills: W

Week 3: vs Saints: W

Week 4: @Patriots: L

Week 5: @Lions: L

Week 6: vs Eagles: W

Week 7: @Bears: W

Week 8: @Bucs: L

Week 9: vs Falcons: W

Week 10: vs Dolphins: W

Week 11: BYE

Week 12: @Jets: W

Week 13: @Saints: L

Week 14: vs Vikings: W

Week 15: vs Packers: W

Week 16: vs Bucs: W

Week 17: @Falcons: L

 

Prediction: 11-5