We're more than halfway through the NFL season, and while plenty of teams have Super Bowl aspirations, others are vying for an unfortunate yet rewarding prize: the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It's looking more and more like the suddenly red-hot Carolina Panthers will not end up as the worst team in the league.

The Minnesota Vikings let special teams score the points on Sunday against the Jaguars, and they won with a score of 12-7. The team could never quite get its offense going, so the defense had to step up and take advantage of the Jaguars' use of a backup quarterback.

At 1-7 entering Week 9, the Carolina Panthers had little to no (closer to no) playoff hopes left. And in what’s become an annual occurrence for their fans, who haven’t seen their team play football past the regular season since the 2017 campaign,