The NFL is set to drop its 2026 regular-season schedule on Thursday, and with it comes a flurry of leaks—especially around the marquee prime-time matchups. But for the Carolina Panthers, this year's schedule release carries extra weight: they are the only team in the league that hasn't appeared on Sunday Night Football since the NFL expanded to a 17-game schedule in 2021.
That's right—while teams like the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants are already locked in for NBC's first SNF broadcast of the season, the Panthers have been conspicuously absent from the Sunday night spotlight. According to Saints Wire's John Sigler, Carolina's drought is the longest in the NFL. Here's how the rest of the league stacks up: the Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, and New Orleans Saints each have just one SNF appearance during that span, while the Tennessee Titans have two. The Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, and Seattle Seahawks all have three.
For Panthers fans, the wait has been even longer on a personal level. Carolina's last Sunday Night Football appearance came all the way back in 2016—a night that's still painful to recall. It was the infamous "tie game" against the Seattle Seahawks, where reigning MVP Cam Newton was benched for the opening series after failing to wear a tie on the team flight. The Panthers went on to lose 40-7 in an embarrassing national broadcast.
The team did get a Monday Night Football slot in 2025, but that ended in a 20-9 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on the road. Still, there's growing buzz that Carolina is due for a prime-time return. The Panthers are coming off their first division title since 2015, and after another strong offseason, they look like a team on the rise.
When the Panthers finally get that Sunday Night Football nod again, it won't just be a scheduling quirk—it will be a clear sign that they've arrived as a legitimate contender in the NFC. For a team that's been rebuilding and reloading, that prime-time slot is the ultimate badge of relevance.