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Coming into this NFL season there were a few people who thought that the Carolina Panthers could be an under the radar pick to make the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Panthers and their fans that doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case this season.

Carolina plays in the NFC South with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. Now the Falcons appeared as though this would be another step in their rebuild. The Saints have a new head coach and just can’t seem to keep their skill position players healthy. As for the Buccaneers, well they lost quite a few of their offensive lineman from last season. These were just a few of the reason that people thought Carolina would compete in their division.

The Panthers season didn’t get off to a very good start as they dropped their first two games before getting a win in Week 3. Then after a Week 4 loss the Panthers became the first team to fire their head coach as Matt Rhule was relieved of his duties.

Stev Wilks took over as Panthers head coach on an interim basis and while Carolina lost his first game as their new head coach there was another interesting thing that happened.

Carolina’s top wide receiver Robbie Anderson had multiple confrontation with one of the Panthers offensive assistant coaches and ended up being sent to the locker room by Wilks before halftime and didn’t return to the field for the remainder of Carolina’s Week 5 game.

Anderson was subsequentially traded to the Arizona Cardinals for two draft picks, a 6th round pick in the 2024 draft and a 7th round pick in the 2025 draft.

After a 1-5 start to the season there were some questions about what direction the Panthers were headed, and it appears as though those questions were answered with the trade, they made earlier this week.

Carolina traded what many people thought was their most valuable asset in running back Christian McCaffery to the San Francisco 49ers. In return for McCaffery the Panthers received four draft choices a 2nd, 3rd and 4th round draft pick in the 2023 draft as well as a 5th round pick in the 2024 draft.

While four draft picks is a good return for any player it is a bit of a surprise that the Panthers didn’t end up with a 1st round draft choice in a deal for McCaffery.

Now the 49ers are getting a duel threat running back in McCaffery, but the biggest question will be can he stay healthy? McCaffery has played in all six of Carolina’s games this season, but over the last two seasons he has only appeared in 10 games.

When healthy McCaffery could be the best running back in the NFL. Don’t forget that in 2019 McCaffery went over 1000 rushing and receiving in the same season. That made him one of only three players to do that in a season. The other two are Roger Craig who did it with the 49ers in 1985 and Marshall Faulk who accomplished the feat with the then St. Louis Rams in 1999.

With two trades under their belt and the NFL trade deadline just around the corner it will be interesting to see if the Panthers make any other moves as it looks as though the team might be headed for a compete tear down.

With McCaffery gone from a fantasy football perspective it will be interesting to see who Carolina gives the majority of the carries to at the running back position. D’Onta Foreman and Chubba Hubbard will be the two top running backs, but combined they only have 18 carries this season. It is also possible that Raheem Blackshear sees some time in the backfield. So far this season Blackshear has only been used as a kick returner.

The Panthers are at home this week as they host the Buccaneers and it’s possible that quarterback Baker Mayfield will be back from injury and will start tomorrow’s game. Mayfield missed last week’s game due to an ankle injury and was limited in practice this week. Mayfield is listed as doubtful on the Panthers injury report. If Mayfield isn’t ready to go it’s quite Possible that Sam Darnold will see his first action of this season. Darnold had been sidelined with an ankle injury of his own but was activated off of the injury list earlier this week.

It’s looking as though it may be a long season for Panthers fans, and they might end up being the team that lands that #1 draft pick in the 2023 draft. If Carolina ended up in that spot you’d have to wonder if they’d go after a quarterback to rebuild their franchise around.

Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.