You can click through for the rankings yourself. Please note that no single metric can adequately define a team's performance in any aspect. I also know some of you are skeptical of DVOA or at least have a hard time understanding what it is. Here's an explanation.
There are a number of interesting tidbits in the data this year but let's get the meat of the issue for the Panthers first. Carolina finished 23rd over in DVOA, about where you would expect them too given they finished 6-10 and have the 8th overall pick in the league.
Breaking it down between offense, defense and special teams the Panthers were 25th in offense DVOA, 10th in defense DVOA and 26th in special teams, again right about where I would imagined based on how the season finished up. Talk about a huge step back for the offense, they were top 5 in this category last season (4th overall). That should be no surprise for anyone.
For all the talk about special teams improving (right up until P Andy Lee got hurt) they once again were one of the worst units in the league. From what I saw from Devin Hester this past weekend that dude can still return kicks like a Boss yet he's about to retire. But I digress...
So the drop off is obviously with the offense which starts with QB Cam Newton and the offensive line. The defense did drop off some but finishing at #10 is a nice recovery given some of the shellackings they took early.
Here's some more data for you.
- Per the 2016 Schedule metric the Panthers had the 6th hardest schedule in the league
- Per the Variance metric the Panthers were the 9th most consistent team week to week, consistently not good unfortunately.
- Per the Pythagorean Wins metric the Panthers finished a little short of the projected 6.8 wins based just on their points scored and points allowed.
- The LA Rams offense was so bad they made the top 10 worst DVOA offenses ever, worse even than the 2010 Jimmy Clausen led Panthers offense. Thanks to the Rams 5th worst offense ever the 2010 now holds the 7th position.