Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals NFL Pick & Preview

Carolina Panthers @ Arizona Cardinals NFL Pick & Preview: I like the Carolina Panthers more than everybody else does. I don’t think anybody realizes how bad it was last season. I mean, they didn’t have anybody at quarterback – nobody. None of the guys that were there even had a chance of beating out Cam Newton, a kid who, quite honestly, isn’t ready to start at this level. But he’s better than they are, and you know he’s going to make a couple great plays every game. If he can keep defenses just somewhat honest with a laser beam here and there, a couple deep ones to Steve Smith and some over the middle stuff to two pretty good tight ends, the running game is going to be good enough to win them at least 6-7 games. People forget that this team was beat up all over the board last year, especially on the offensive line. But they have everyone back, and healthy, this is one heck of an O-line in Carolina.

Arizona has a lot of hype because they got Kevin Kolb, and I’ll agree, he’s three times better than the guys Arizona had last season when they were at their very best. He gives them a chance, definitely. And this is a well coached team, so they could walk away with the NFC West. That being said, they still have holes on defense, injuries in the secondary, and I’m yet to be convinced that their offensive line is good enough to dominate the line of scrimmage. Getting 7 points here is too much hype-train for me.

Carolina Panthers (+7) @ Arizona Cardinals