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Carolina Panthers: Not Playing in St. Louis

By John Woodcock

Jan 24, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera with Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians after the NFC Championship football game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 24, 2016; Charlotte, NC, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera with Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians after the NFC Championship football game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Carolina Panthers get to play both teams from St. Louis next year as we begin looking at the NFC West.

The Carolina Panthers get a division other than the AFC West to play this year. That division is the NFC West. That means that the Panthers will not avoid the Seattle Seahawks despite the Seahawks not winning their own division last year. The Panthers will also get the Arizona Cardinals in a rematch in Bank of America stadium of the NFC Championship Game.

The Seahawks and Cardinals are the highlights of the division. The other two teams, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams are teams looking to find their way again. The 49ers were contenders just two seasons ago. The Rams were a popular choice for ‘team that will get there next year.’

The Rams’ basic trouble is that they did not like their hole at quarterback. They dealt Sam Bradford for the opportunity to try out Nick Foles. Bradford had been injured despite big contracts, while Foles did not produce quite what they were looking for after the trade. Now the Rams are going to try again behind Jared Goff, the number one pick out of California.

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Goff had better pay off too since the Rams gave away six picks for him after knowing how badly a decision like that could go from the Robert Griffin trade. Some may wonder if the Rams left their brains in St. Louis.

It is still hard to think of the Los Angeles Rams, moved back to the nation’s second largest city by a Missouri native. It would be kind of like Clay Bennett moving the Thunder back to Seattle and away from his hometown of Oklahoma City.

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49ers vs. Cardinals prediction, odds, spread, injuries, trends for NFL Week 15 /

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    • The Rams don’t put the owner or the general manager on the field, so let’s look at what they do put on the field. On offense, the team gained a big weapon last year in Todd Gurley. This makes their offense in a mirror of what the Vikings are trying to do in Minnesota. Stop Gurley, and the Rams are in the hands of a rookie quarterback.

    For fellow former Chicago Bear Jeff Fisher, life is supposed to be like it is for Ron Rivera’s Panthers. In fact you could argue that Fisher had just that kind of team when the Titans were held just short of beating the team he currently coaches. That means we must look to the defense first.

    The Rams defense is built similarly to the Panthers. It relies on a tough defense line with Robert Quinn and Aaron Donald. It is missing the tough linebacker corps that the Panthers enjoy. Also like the Panthers, the Rams are trying to replace their best corner, Janorris Jenkins, who left in free agency.

    The lesson is simple, control the line and you control the Rams.

    That lesson is more complicated when you look at the current division champion Cardinals. The Cardinals defense is ideally supposed to behave like the Denver Broncos defense. To fix that gap, the Cardinals went out and traded for New England Patriots end Chandler Jones. It is too early to know exactly how the Cardinals plan to use Jones, but his added pass pressure was certainly in their minds.

    The Cardinals also bring back one of the best secondaries in the league with Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu. Given the dangerous line of Jones and Calais Campbell, the secondary’s job can be pretty easy at times.

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    The real questions for the Cardinals are on offense. They strengthened the line through signing Evan Mathis, the wide receivers are set, and some running back named Johnson will carry the ball. So what is the problem?

    The problem is where Carson Palmer’s head is at. He had an explosively bad NFC Championship Game that was very similar to the game that Jake Delhomme had against the Cardinals in the last playoff performance of the John Fox era. Delhomme was never the same after that. My hope is that Palmer will not end up on the same path.

    Next: Newton Adjusting to the Blitz

    With that said, we can move on Seattle and San Francisco tomorrow to look at these former rivals rather than the teams that used to play in St. Louis.

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