By TANK SPENCER

Special to the Daily Planet

Tank Spencer is the host of a weekly sports talk show, “The Sports Tank,” on Asheville’s News Radio WWNC (570-AM) that airs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Spencer also serves as WWNC’s news anchor, reporter and afternoon producer. This column features posts from his blog.

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The following was posted April 22: 

The Carolina Panthers are coming off back-to-back NFC South titles and the team’s schedule for the coming season does them no favors. The Panthers have an early bye week in Week 5 and the first four matchups are favorable, meaning they could be undefeated by the break.

The next stretch of games will set the tone for the season and tell just how good the Panthers can be.

Starting Oct. 18, the Panthers face two-time defending NFC Champ Seattle in the Emerald City, the re-tooled Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football at home, Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football at home, and then Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers come to Charlotte on Nov. 8. The Panthers will likely drop three of the four.

The rest of the season it’s mostly road games (5 of 8). The 5-3 Panthers should have no trouble picking up at least four wins out of the last eight, meaning they should finish, at worst, 9-7.

The biggest news of the schedule release is the Panthers will be playing on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in franchise history. Cam Newton and company will go to The Big D to take on Tony Romo and the Cowboys. The problem there is… that’s still in November and before the usual Dallas December collapse.

Obviously, there are a lot more roster moves to be made, considering we haven’t even gotten to the draft yet.

If the team does not do more to address the offensive line issue, that will have an impact on how I feel about this team. Another wide receiver is needed as well.

Unless they can get an elite pass-rusher to add to the stable, the Panthers must spend their No. 1 pick on a tackle.