NFL Rumors: Panthers vs Broncos to open 2016 season

The 2016 NFL season will be opening with a Super Bowl rematch between the Panthers and Broncos

A lot of NFL fans are anxious on Thursday as the schedule for the 2016 regular season will be released at 8:00 p.m. ET. As we know, though, there are some leaks throughout the day, and we now know what game will be opening the season.

According to a report from the Charlotte Observer, they’ve been told that the opening Thursday Night Football match up for this season will see a rematch from the most recent Super Bowl, as the Carolina Panthers will be taking on the Denver Broncos.

These two teams met back in February in Super Bowl 50, and things did not go all that well for the Panthers, who finished the regular season at 15-1 and were coming off destroying the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC title game. Their high-powered offense was shut right down by a rather ferocious Denver defense, as Cam Newton was basically rendered useless along with the rest of the offense. The Broncos defense was so good that Von Miller easily collected the MVP honor.

This game also marked the final game in the career of Peyton Manning, who ended up riding off into the sunset of retirement having collected the second Super Bowl ring that was eluding him for quite some time.

That being said, when these two teams meet to open the season this September, things will look a little different, especially with the Denver offense. As it stands right now, instead of the Newton-Manning duel we got for the Super Bowl, we’re probably getting Mark Sanchez running the Denver offensive side of things, as the team also lost backup Brock Osweiler in free agency to the Houston Texans.

Nonetheless, this will be the matchup we get this coming September when the NFL season will officially get underway.

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