NFL fans eagerly awaited the announcement of the 2020 NFL schedule on Thursday night. With the entire sports world on pause due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the release of the schedules gives football fans something to look forward to and is a positive sign that football will return in the fall.
The Carolina Panthers will open their third season in a row in Charlotte at the Bank of America Stadium against the Las Vegas Raiders and will finish the season at home against the New Orleans Saints for the third consecutive year.
There was speculation the league would load the first half of the season with non-conference matchups, leaving them for the second half of the season as a coronavirus backup plan. However, that isn’t the case as the Panthers will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2 of the 2020 season. Carolina will finish up the away portion of their conference play in the seventh week of the season when they face the Saints in New Orleans. The Saints will be the Panthers’ only conference matchup in the final seven weeks of the season.
Of course, the Panthers will play all of the opponents in the NFC South twice and will also face the entire NFC North and the AFC West in the 2020 season, meaning they will face the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. As of right now, Carolina is only scheduled to play one primetime game, which will be against the Atlanta Falcons, but they may have an opportunity for another night game when they play against Green Bay.
Carolina is scheduled to play the Jaguars, Patriots, Ravens, and Steelers in the preseason with further details being released at a later date. One exception to this is the game against Baltimore, which is currently slated to be nationally televised on Aug. 30.
The NFL is working with federal and local health departments in order to prepare for the season with caution. It isn’t clear yet if the games will have fans in attendance or what social distancing protocols will be required, but the league and organizations will fully comply with any changes.
The Panthers will start their 2020 season under the leadership of the new head coach Matt Rhule, who was hired to take over the team in February. Rhule has recruited a few of his former players from Temple, signed Teddy Bridgewater, and drafted Derrick Brown in the first round of the draft. Rhule has been known to turn around losing programs and the Carolina faithful hope this is the case with the Panthers as well.
