2020 NFL Power Rankings: Patriots moving up as training camp nears

Carolina stays at No. 20

The Carolina Panthers ended an era this offseason when they decided to relieve Ron Rivera of his coaching duties and release quarterback Cam Newton. The two both joined Carolina in 2011 and while they had a lot of success, they oddly never put together back-to-back winning seasons.

Even with that being the case, the Panthers were always a good team with those two. They remained competitive even with the fact that they played in a rather tough division. And now, that division has gotten even better with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers landing Tom Brady.

As for Carolina, they replaced Rivera with former Baylor coach Matt Rhule, who comes. in with a lot of hype following a very successful collegiate career. Rhule is all about building the right program and he’s going to try and turn the Panthers into a run-first team that plays it safe with the passing game.

He has a great running back/quarterback combination to try and do that with as Carolina replaced Newton with Teddy Bridgewater and locked up Christian McCaffrey to a long-term contract. Those two can keep the chains moving and their wide receivers have some home run power with D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, and Curtis Samuel on the same team.