According to ESPN, the Carolina Panthers will have the honor of playing the most difficult schedule in the league next season. The Panther's will combat a group of opponents whose combined winning percentage was an impressive .543 in 2012. This will mark the third straight season the Panther's "strength of schedule" has ranked in the top ten, and the second time they have faced the league's toughest schedule during that same period.

We all knew that Gettleman, Rivera, and company were faced with a serious uphill battle to be a playoff team in 2013, and this revelation only serves to reinforce that notion.