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After the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII, all 32 teams officially entered the offseason and started plotting how they could position themselves for a shot at Super Bowl XLIX. Shutdown Corner will look at the offseason blueprint for each of the 32 NFL teams, presenting one team a day (using the 2014 draft order, starting with the Houston Texans and finishing with the Seahawks), leading you right up to the start of free agency on March 11. CAROLINA PANTHERS 2013 record: 12-4 Projected current salary-cap space ( according to OverTheCap.com ): $7.1 million under the cap Key free agents: G Travelle Wharton, CB Captain Munnerlyn, S Quintin Mikell, S Mike Mitchell, WR Brandon LaFell, WR Ted Ginn Possible salary-cap casualties: WR Steve Smith, S Charles Godfrey Draft situation: Carolina has the 28th overall pick, and one pick in every round. It traded its seventh-round pick, but gained another seventh-round pick in a trade with the Giants. [Be sure to check out Shutdown Corner's NFL free-agent rankings. Click here for the list of offensive players , and click here for the list of defensive and special teams players ] Revisiting 2013: It was a tremendous year for the Panthers. After a slow start, Carolina won 11 of its final 12 regular-season games. A last-minute win over the Saints in Week 16 was the key to the Panthers winning an improbable NFC South title. The front seven on defense, led by NFL defensive player of the year Luke Kuechly, carried the team, and quarterback Cam Newton continued to be one of the NFL's best quarterbacks. The difference for Newton in 2013 was he led some game-winning drives and more people finally noticed how good he is. That was long overdue. The Panthers lost their first playoff game to San Francisco, but that doesn't erase everything they accomplished.
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