CHARLOTTE — Analysts all over the world, some qualified and some not, are in the process of breaking down the 2026 NFL schedule, which was announced Thursday night.

But who do you trust more to talk about what this schedule means for the Panthers than the guy who has played more games than anyone in franchise history, and the latest Hall of Famer?

On the latest edition of the JJ and Luke podcast (available, as always, on the Panthers' YouTube channel), long snapper JJ Jansen and former linebacker and current Panthers Radio Network analyst Luke Kuechly went through the schedule offering their insights.

While they're obviously hoping for a 17-0 record, they discussed the way the schedule breaks down.

As Jansen pointed out, former head coach John Fox used to break the schedule down into quarters (which was easier to make the math work out when the season was 16 games), so that's how they looked at it.

First quarter

Week 1 — Chicago
Week 2 — at Atlanta
Week 3 — at Cleveland
Week 4 — Detroit (Sunday Night Football)

Kuechly: "I think the best thing is, first of all, we open up at home. I think that's a huge advantage, not having to get on a plane after training camp and go to an away stadium is awesome. And then, you know, when you look at these first couple of weeks, one thing I always looked at was, where am I going to gather information from these teams? So obviously, (Bears coach) Ben Johnson's been there. We can watch last year's tape, some of the stuff that we're going to see this year in the preseason from the Bears, very vanilla, easy stuff, kind of what everybody in the league is doing. So most of the stuff that you're going to watch on Ben Johnson is from last year.

"You know, at the end of the season, when they were humming, when they kind of figured out what Caleb Williams looks like, they're going to be pretty similar on the offensive side of the ball. Obviously, (wide receiver) DJ Moore is now in Buffalo, so it'll look a little bit different there, but two big tight ends, two really good young wide receivers that they drafted high first and second round the last couple of years, and they're going to be really big and good upfront."

After that, it enters some unknown territory, as both the Falcons (Kevin Stefanski) and Browns (Todd Monken) have new head coaches.

For Kuechly, having to prepare and predict for wild cards was never his preference, but he leans back on what he knew about their preferences and the personnel they inherited.

Kuechly said that with quarterback Michael Penix still recovering from an ACL injury (suffered against the Panthers last season), he's expecting to see new Falcons quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

But mostly, he said he'd watch Browns tape from last year to pick up tips on Stefanski, and Baltimore tape from last year (where Monken called plays for Lamar Jackson for tendencies. And then the small sample size of the first two weeks could inform how they're adapting to new personnel.

Kuechly: "Having one full game to sit and look at was always a huge advantage, in my opinion, as a defender. I want as much information from that current year as we can get in those first two. Of those first four games, we don't really know what Atlanta is going to look like or what Cleveland's truthfully going to look like. Is Deshaun (Watson) the quarterback? Is it going to be Shedeur Sanders, is it Dillon Gabriel? What is it going to look like?

After those two, the Lions come to town for the Panthers' first Sunday Night Football appearance since 2016. The fact that it comes before the bye week adds emphasis.

Kuechly: "It's a really good exclamation point on those first four games. And if you don't get excited about playing prime time football in the NFL at home under the lights to start the season. I have a hard time with that. I think it's going to be an electric atmosphere."

Second quarter

Week 5 — Bye
Week 6 — at Philadelphia
Week 7 — Tampa Bay
Week 8 — at Green Bay (Thursday Night Football)
Week 9 — Denver

Getting the break and then a chance to study enough of the Eagles (with new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, and first-round receiver Makai Lemon, and the anticipated departure of wideout AJ Brown), there will be some tendencies on tape.

Kuechly: "By that time, we're going to have a really good feel for what they look like."

Jansen: "It'll be interesting to see how we handle an earlier bye. The last couple of years, we've had the later bye. I know coach (Dave) Canales and the staff, they really use the bye week to begin to do a self-scout. Hey, what have we done? What are our tendencies? What are the things we'd like to maybe change about what we're doing, all those sorts of things?

"So you could walk out there Week 6 and have a new sense of who you are. Philadelphia, right, they're a really good team. They're going to challenge you in a lot of different ways. They're big, they're physical. Probably for the last four or five years have had the best roster in football, and the proof is in the pudding. So that's going to be a big test."

The Panthers then return to division play with the Buccaneers at home, but it's a very different Bucs team. With wide receiver Mike Evans gone to San Francisco and linebacker Lavonte David retired, they might be hard to recognize.

Kuechly: "It's a division game at home. And it's just a one game at a time mentality. I don't think you start looking ahead. I don't think you start looking ahead to the Packers or the Broncos. I think it's just one game at a time. And hopefully at that point, we're sitting in pretty good shape. And I think we'll have a really good feel for what our team looks like in this stretch, Tampa, Green Bay, Denver. I think we'll have a really good feel for what the 2026 Carolina Panthers are going to look like.

"I mean, Tampa beat us last game of the season last year. So it's still wide open, but I'm excited that in our first block of four, we get a division game, and our next block of four, we get another division game, and then it continues that way. They're not all cramped together like they traditionally are."

With the Thursday road game at Green Bay in Week 8, they get a short week. But Jansen, a father of four, sees it from the home perspective.

Jansen: "My kids will be thrilled because on Halloween night, I'll be home."

At this point, they compared candy strategies (Jansen's a big-bar guy, Kuechly's a "volume candy giver").

Jansen: "So, then you come home, you get the mini-bye, we'll have all gained 10 pounds from all the candy we've eaten over Halloween break, and then we get the Broncos. So they were just a couple of plays away last year from playing in the Super Bowl."

Third quarter

Week 10 — at New Orleans
Week 11 — Baltimore
Week 12 — at Tampa Bay (Monday Night Football)
Week 13 — at Minnesota

This stretch is tricky, in addition to the opponents, because of the short week created by a Monday road game and flight back, followed by the team's longest trip of the year to Minnesota.

Kuechly: "You almost lose two days. If you play a traditional game on Sunday at 1 o'clock, stay at home. You're in bed, and you have a normal night's sleep on Sunday night. Monday is a recovery day. You start watching tape, you start working on your day. Tuesday's our day off again, another day to get ahead.

"When you go Monday night on the road away, we play Tampa at 8:15. And luckily, it's on the East Coast. Luckily, it's Tampa. That's again one of the benefits of shorter travel. I get home at 2 o'clock, maybe in the morning on Tuesday. Then everybody sleeps in, and then you're kind of already a little bit behind a normal week. So you show up Tuesday, you're kind of getting all the soreness out, you're starting to prep, and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, they look a little bit different.

"Traditionally, at this point in the season, you wouldn't be in pads anyway, but is it more of a walkthrough instead of a run-through day on Wednesday? Give guys another opportunity to flush, get ahead. A lot of mental reps are going on. And by that, the only saving grace is that at that point in the season, we should know who we are, what we look like, what we're good at. We're not tweaking a ton of stuff. On the defensive side of the ball, we know who we are. This is what we're good at.

"So the mental side's not as much as it would be early in the season, but the physical side, how do we get ready from Tuesday at 2 (a.m.) to a Sunday game on the road?"

Kuechly also stressed the importance of the quality control coaches and young assistants working ahead to help mitigate the time lost.

Fourth quarter (and change)

Week 14 — New Orleans
Week 15 — Cincinnati
Week 16 — at Pittsburgh
Week 17 — Seattle
Week 18 — Atlanta

The final five games of the season, including just one road trip, are key.

Jansen: "So this is the stretch run split between December and January, and I think everyone that's looked at this schedule kind of all saw the same thing. It certainly popped out to you, Luke, four of your last five at home; it's a big thing. This is the payoff, right?

Kuechly: "The biggest thing for me is like we talked about, you're at home, and I think that's a huge deal. The ability for us to sleep in our beds and not have to travel to wake up after a Sunday game and get a great night's sleep. I think there's a huge impact with that.

"And I think the other thing you look at is that throughout this whole schedule, there's only one cold game. Pittsburgh's going be a little bit chilly. And I think ending the season at home, I think is the most beneficial thing for a team. You get an opportunity at the end of the season when you're tired, and you're sore, and you're making a playoff push to get that game at home is a huge deal."

Jansen: "So that's the schedule, and then of course there's the fifth quarter, which is the playoffs. That'll be three or four games. They haven't told us who we're going to be beating on the way to the Super Bowl. Hopefully, we have at least three home games to end the season because we won the division.

"So, big picture. I think we've got a really favorable schedule. We have the shortest travel in the NFL, which is really nice. Again, a lot of these things are already known, but the layout and the order, and the schedule makers, I think, were kind to us."

That's just a taste of the breakdown. For the full episode, click here.