Who are the Carolina Panthers? Where did they come from, and how did they get here?

Wasn’t it just last season that they somehow snuck into the playoffs at 7-8-1? How in the world did they make the leap to 17-1?

There’s a lot we don’t know about the Carolina Panthers. They truly did come out of nowhere, growing from a group few expected to make the playoffs to a team that should be 18-0.  But how they got here is a bit of a mystery. It’s not as if that much really changed in the last 12 months.

Cam Newton is still the quarterback, Ron Rivera is still the head coach and their coordinators are the same, too. Really, the most notable difference is that their star wideout, Kelvin Benjamin, hasn’t played a snap this season, though you’d think that be a negative, not a positive.

So let’s break things down a little more. Here are three things that every Denver Broncos fan needs to know about the Panthers heading into Super Bowl 50:

Carolina’s Strength Of Schedule:

I don’t care who you face, going 15-1 in the NFL is a heck of an accomplishment, but if we’re going to break things down, the Panthers had about as easy of a path as you can ask for.

According to Football Outsiders, not only did Carolina have the easiest schedule in the league this season, but they had the easiest schedule any team has faced in the last five years. The Panthers’ average opponent DVOA came out to -8.6 percent (again, the lowest in the last five years), which is essentially the equivalent of playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16 games in a row.

Now, would it be difficult to go 15-1 against the Bucs? Sure, but it’s a whole lot easier than going 15-1 against the Minnesota Vikings, who equate to the average opponent for the Denver Broncos (4.1%).

Whereas the Broncos had to face off against the AFC and NFC North, the Panthers got to play against the AFC South and NFC East all season long, easily the two worst divisions in football; they got to play the rest of the NFC South twice, too.

Now, again, the Panthers can only play the schedule they’re handed, but I think it’s fair to say that they got off easy.