The Carolina Panthers had their seventh consecutive losing season in 2024, but it’s not like there weren’t any positive developments. 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young showed massive improvement late in 2024 after looking like a potential bust to start his career. His three best games of the season all came at the end of the year, and he threw multiple touchdowns in all three games, something Young had done just a single time in his first 25 NFL starts.
With Young appearing to be on the rise, the Panthers went out and got him more help this offseason, drafting big receiver Tetairoa McMillan with the eighth overall pick. Adam Thielen, who turns 35 this month, has been the only Carolina player to top 525 receiving yards in either of Young’s first two NFL campaigns, and McMillan can be a true long-term No. 1 option for Young and the Panthers moving forward. McMillan is the lone big addition to Carolina’s offense after the offensive line graded out better than expected in 2024, but that side of the ball could be above average in 2025 if the last few weeks of 2024 are any indication.
The defense is where the Panthers focused most on this offseason. That side of the ball ranked last in scoring defense last season, and Carolina dished out $132 million in free agency along with using Rounds 2-5 of the draft on the defense, too. Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown step onto the defensive line next to Derrick Brown, who played just one game last year following his 2023 Pro Bowl season. 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 start at safety. Whether the moves will be enough is anyone’s guess, but the Panthers defense quite literally has nowhere to go but up.
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 | 7.5 (-145) | 6.5 (-145) | 6.5 (-130) | 7.5 (+115) |
| Go Under win total | 7.5 (+120) | 6.5 (+122) | 6.5 (+110) | 7.5 (-135) |
| Win Super Bowl | +15000 | +12500 | +12000 | +10000 |
| Win NFC | +5000 | +6000 | +5000 | +4300 |
| Win NFC South | +400 | +440 | +370 | +350 |
| Make playoffs | +280 | +250 | +230 | +225 |
| Miss playoffs | -350 | -320 | -290 | -290 |
| Win No. 1 seed | +6600 | +5500 | +7000 | +4000 |
Odds subject to change.
2025 Bryce Young props
| MVP | +8000 | +10000 | +8000 | +7500 |
| Offensive POY | +10000 | +8000 | +20000 | +25000 |
| Most pass yards | +8000 | +10000 | +5500 | |
| Pass yards O/U | 3150.5 | 3175.5 | 3150.5 | 3200.5 |
| Pass TDs O/U | 17.5 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 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
Unless the offseason additions help this unit improve drastically, there’s a good chance Carolina features the worst defense in the NFL again in 2025 based on how bad they were compared to other defenses last year, when they gave up 66 more points than the next-closest defense. The Panthers also allowed a whopping 6 yards per play allowed and allowed 653 more rushing yards than any other team, along with the most passing touchdowns while picking off only nine passes. The additions should help, but none of those new faces finished with a grade higher than 35th at their position last year, per PFF, so it’s also not like they’re adding All-Pro level talent either.
And for as good as Young looked to close the year, that was just a three-game sample, and he had just 19 touchdowns to 19 interceptions before that breakout stretch. Young was so poor to open the year that he was benched for Andy Dalton, and while the team eventually put him back into the starting lineup, Young still very much has to prove he’s capable of being earmarked as the team’s long-term starter this year or the Panthers may need to eye draft positioning heading into a 2026 draft class that should offer several potential starters at quarterback.
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.