Overview
- The 8-8 Panthers visit the 7-9 Buccaneers on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET, with a win securing Carolina’s first playoff berth since 2017 and the division crown.
- If Tampa Bay wins, Carolina still takes the NFC South only if Atlanta beats New Orleans to force an 8-9 three-way tie that Carolina wins on head-to-head; if no three-way tie forms, the Bucs prevail on the common-games tiebreaker.
- Carolina could become the first post-merger team to reach the playoffs without a single win as a betting favorite, and the Panthers are underdogs in Tampa.
- An 8-9 division winner hosting a wild-card game would renew calls to revisit playoff seeding, after the Lions floated a reseeding-by-record proposal that Commissioner Roger Goodell said merits evaluation.
- Panthers supporters traveled to Tampa in numbers as the franchise seeks its first NFC South title since 2015 under GM Dan Morgan and coach Dave Canales.