The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been the team to beat in the NFC South over the past four years and hopefully, it'll stay that way. The rest of the division haven't looked very daunting in recent years but the worst team has been the Carolina Panthers, who haven't had a winning record since 2017.
The Panthers started to look better in 2024 but they finished with just five wins. That apparently was enough to make Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard feel confident that his team isn't just improved but a Super Bowl contender.
“If the goal isn’t to make the playoffs and win a Super Bowl,” Hubbard said, “you’re selling yourself short. So that’s always been the goal. That’s the goal this year. And I think we’re the closest we’ve ever been.”
While he's right about teams making goals like that, the Panthers are probably not the kind of team that should realistically be expected to fall into that category. Maybe they could be a playoff team if a lot breaks their way in 2025, but the Super Bowl is a long shot for them.
Bucs fans will enjoy laughing at Chuba Hubbard's lofty expectations for Panthers
Hubbard also talked about how he and the rest of his teammates are fed up with losing, something the Panthers have done a lot of in recent years. He cited the 2015 Panthers squad as motivation, which, yes, that team made it to a Super Bowl but they lost in hilarious fashion.
“I think guys are finally sick of being the same ol’, same ol’ Carolina Panthers,” he said. “I think we want to get back to what they did here in the past, in 2015 [when the Panthers went to the Super Bowl] and some of those other years when they had deep playoff runs and had the crowd involved and the city hyped up. We haven’t had that.”
Hubbard hasn't been on a winning team since entering the league as the Panthers' fourth-round pick in 2021 so it makes sense that after the team slightly improved last year, he'd think they're on the fast-track to winning a Super Bowl. Considering Carolina won just five games last year and haven't made it to the Super Bowl in a decade, it feels like the Panthers' path back to the biggest game in sports is more than just a year away.
Comments like these are music to Bucs fans' ears because it's going to give that fan base hope. When they continue to fall flat on their faces, that'll make it even funnier for Buccaneers fans.