NFL History: Ranking the 30 best wild card teams in NFL history

Ranking the 30 best wild card teams in NFL history: 22. 2005 Carolina Panthers

The 2003 Carolina Panthers carried a young team all the way to the Super Bowl, but things spiraled downwards pretty quickly. That team came off a Championship attempt with a 1-7 start to the season. Steve Smith was injured, and the offense couldn’t recover. The next season, the Panthers were back to their contender status, even if they didn’t win the division.

The Panthers won the same 11 games they won in 2003 in 2005. This time, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a slightly better record and relegated the Panthers to the five seed in the NFC. The stellar defense was once again leading to turnovers giving the offenses short fields and just generally making things easy for them. Julius Peppers was directly in his prime. He had double-digit sacks this season. The defense had more than a dozen fumble recoveries this season. They added 23 interceptions on top of that.

In the playoffs, the Giants were literally no match for the Panthers. They got destroyed in the Wild Card round. It was a typical Panthers performance where they forced five turnovers in a dominant performance. Against the Chicago Bears in the next round, they flipped the script. The Panthers had 434 yards of offense, including a legendary day from Steve Smith Sr. He had 219 yards receiving and two touchdowns in a 29-21 victory over the second seed in the NFC.

Jake Delhomme fell apart against the Seattle Seahawks. He threw three crucial interceptions in the NFC Title Game. It would be a sign of things to come, as the rest of Delhomme’s career would be marred by turnovers. In this contest, the Panthers just seemed overmatched. That shouldn’t take away from what they did before. They were legit contenders that could beat teams in many different ways.