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One week from today, the Carolina Panthers will open training camp and the long season will begin.

A whistle will blow, and a roster that looks an awful lot like the roster from the past three seasons will take the first steps toward an outcome no one can predict with any confidence. But the signs are ominous. Coming off a season that ended in a horror show and an offseason that continues to darken, the Panthers appear to be headed for a disaster.

That's why they play the games, though, and the league's most stable team over the past few seasons has an opportunity to do something almost no one believes possible. Up against a schedule believed to be the toughest the NFL can possibly dole out and with controversies looming and with the turnover of a third of the coaching staff and with expectations weighing already on a team that won 12 games a year ago, there's almost no way the Panthers can measure up.

The team's offensive leader, quarterback Jake Delhomme, is coming off an NFC Championship Game in which he threw five interceptions and fumbled in a 33-13 loss that will resonate all year. Delhomme will always be coming off that game.

The team's defensive leader, All-Pro defensive end Julius Peppers, is coming off protracted contract talks that became testy and ended two weeks ago with Peppers refusing to sign a long-term deal. The refusal to sign left Carolina with a price tag that could reach $17 million for one season and ruined any hopes of the team freeing up money to go after other impact players.

The era of good feeling is over in Charlotte. Carolina will head into its 15th NFL training camp trying to avoid further controversy.

Past camps have produced plenty, and last year's was a doozy. Steve Smith, the team's explosive receiver, attacked cornerback Ken Lucas in an ugly incident that resulted in Smith missing the first two games of the season. Carolina somehow won both games then went on to have its best regular season ever. So much for training camp controversy.

This year is different. The angst over Delhomme and Peppers is real, and at some point there has to be a release of that pressure or the season will come apart. Ideally, that would happen in camp, where games are meaningless and proven players like Delhomme and Peppers can find a routine, put camp behind them and start the season moving forward. Almost anything that knocks them off course in camp this year could linger all season. Already, the two are likely to hear boos. There's real anger over Delhomme's performance in the championship game. And there is real disdain over Peppers saying he no longer wanted to be a member of the team.

John Fox sidestepped the issues through the offseason. The team had a good draft despite starting with no first-round pick. And once again, as has been the mark of the franchise under Fox and general manager Marty Hurney, almost the entire team returns intact.

The season will begin with Philadelphia coming to Charlotte, then the Panthers play Atlanta and Dallas on the road before a bye in Week 4. What follows will be a 13-week run with no time off and games squeezed together at times making for an almost untenable schedule. The worst will come in the second half, when Carolina plays two games in four days in November before playing the Jets, Bucs, Patriots, Vikings, Giants and Saints to end the season.

Not one of those teams had a losing record last year. In fact, the only team on the entire schedule that didn't was Buffalo, which went 7-9 then went out and signed Terrell Owens in the offseason.

Carolina signed its own in the offseason, brought in rookie Everette Brown from Florida State to play opposite Peppers on the defensive line and two other rookies who have yet to sign. There's no pressure to sign either, and it's almost certain the deals will be done by next Sunday. There are no issues anywhere on the roster. Carolina is a 12-4 football team that reached an NFC divisional playoff game last year with its starting lineup solid and its backups all but signed and sealed.

The angst is still there, though, in part because the Panthers have had some of the most unsettling training camp incidents you can imagine through the years, and this year's camp will end with the NFC South division champion looking straight uphill with the fans upset at the two most important players.

What could possibly go wrong?

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or at ehardin@news-record.com