Carolina Panthers opponents 2026: Who’s on the schedule, how easy or hard will their schedule be

The Carolina Panthers won the NFC South despite an 8-9 record and earned a postseason berth for the first time since 2017. The team was up and down throughout the entire season, but managed to hang around in the division race due to the Buccaneers collapsing in the second half of the season. Even after losing their Week 18 matchup to the Bucs, a Falcons victory over the Saints forced a three-way tie at the top of the division and the Panthers were able to claim the division crown by way of tiebreakers.

Bryce Young took a step forward in 2025, throwing for 3,000+ yards with 20+ touchdowns for the first time in his career. He had some more help on offense compared to last year with Rico Dowdle breaking out on the ground while rookie Tetairoa McMillan had himself a 1,000-yard season right out the gate. Meanwhile, their defense stepped up at moments with Jaycee Horn leading the way with five interceptions to earn a Pro Bowl nod for the second time in his career. Most of these pieces will still be in place for 2026 and we’ll see if they can make it back to the postseason.

The Panthers will have nine home games and eight road games next season pending the announcement of the matchups for the 2026 international games. The rotation will include matchups against the entire AFC North and NFC North, along with their usual six divisional games within the NFC South. Since they won the division, they will be matched up with the first-place finishers of the AFC West (Broncos), NFC West (Seahawks), and NFC East (Eagles) to round out the 17-game schedule.

The price of winning your division is having a first-place schedule and Carolina will have a pretty difficult slate next season with six matchups against 2025 playoff participants. Matchups against the likes of the Seahawks, Bears, and Broncos appear to be the toughest games on their slate and one has to consider that teams like the Bengals, Lions, and Ravens will improve after down years this season. The Panthers will easily be tabbed as the likeliest playoff team to regress in 2026 and it will be on Bryce Young to take a massive step forward in his fourth year to get them back to the postseason.