Yesterday the full Carolina Panthers’ 2017 regular season schedule was released and there is a lot to like about it, starting with their Week 1 opponents.

Carolina’s season opener will once again be on the road (as it has been six of the last seven years), however they will be facing one of the worst teams in the NFL in the San Francisco 49ers, who finished 2-14 last year.

A lot can happen between now and the start of the season, but according to the initial NFL betting figures available at Vegas Insider, the 49ers are considered four-point underdogs at home against Carolina.

Related Panthers full 2017 NFL regular season schedule released

It’s not hard to see why the Panthers are favored on the road even after going 2-6 in games away from Bank of America Stadium in 2016. Last year San Francisco was a classical football dumpster fire and they only won two games all year, both coming against the equally awful Los Angeles Rams.

The Niners also had direct experience with Carolina, who they hosted Week 2. In that game Cam Newton threw for over 350 yards and four touchdowns and the Panthers ran up the score easily, winning 46-27.

Given what we now know about the Carolina team that visited Santa Clara last Sept., that score really stands out and is a reminder of how much the 49ers have fallen off since their three straight NFC Championship Game appearances earlier this decade.

The Niners are a much different club now, though.

Kyle Shanahan has left the Atlanta Falcons to become coach and former safety John Lynch is the new general manager. It will be interesting to see how those two begin to fill the many, many holes on the roster they’ve inherited in next week’s draft.

No matter what the pair comes up with, they will have a tough time with these Panthers. Carolina has won five of the last six meetings between the two and 12 of 20 overall since the team’s inception.