For safety Xavier Woods, the Carolina Panthers' 2024 season comes down to a rather simple goal.
On Tuesday, the veteran revealed his only personal goal is to win more games than the 2-15 2023 season under now-fired head coach Frank Reich.
"I just wanna win,” Woods said . "We’re all tired of losing here. We wanna win, we wanna get this team back up to the top where it belongs. And that’s the only thing that I wanna prove, and I think the only thing the guys in there wanna prove.”
Woods, who signed with the Panthers two years ago, has become a leader on the defense.
He has started in 29 games during his tenure policing the secondary. Amid his time in Charlotte, Woods has claimed over 140 tackles and two interceptions. What his play hasn't produced is wins.
Since the 2022 offseason, Carolina has claimed nine wins – a laughably low total for a once-storied franchise.
It appears Carolina is attempting to change the culture heading into the 2024 season. The additions made on offense – adding Xavier Legette and beating up the offensive line – were meant to make second-year quarterback Bryce Young's life easier.
On defense, Carolina revamped its crop of linebackers , and signed star defensive lineman Derrick Brown to a long-term extension, while still dealing with several questions at outside linebacker .
Woods, despite the questions, believes – on paper –Carolina has what it takes to compete.
"We know the talent that we have on this team," Woods said. "We have to go out there and take those wins, get those wins, and execute.”
Talk is cheap. If Carolina truly is what Woods claims the team can be, it has to prove it on the field.
It is a claim defensive leader Brown is more than willing to back up.
"We gotta go out and prove to everybody that this not the Panthers no more, the old sorry a-- Panthers," Brown said in July. "We gotta go out there and do what we gotta do."
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