Up until recently, the Carolina Panthers had never established themselves as a mainstay in any particular segment of the NFL. The teams frequent oscillations in record prevented anyone outside of Carolina from having too strong or embedded opinion of the organization. Sometimes they were good, sometimes they were bad, but never did they move in either direction for long.
The last few years have changed that. A series of disastrous transactions and disastrous seasons made the Panthers the league’s punching bags. If a commentor or talking head needed to pull out a random team as an example of incompetence, the Panthers were it.