Carolina Panthers: Devin Funchess needs to have breakout 2018 season

Devin Funchess has been tapped as the go-to player in the Carolina Panthers receiving corps. But can he live up to that designation?

The Carolina Panthers front office has been hard at work to rebuild the team’s passing game. In 2017, the Panthers finished right in the middle of the pack, closing out the year as the 15th best passing offense, averaging 229 yards per outing. With the additions that were made this off season, the passing game is one of the biggest questions heading into this year.

At the top of the docket is one Devin Funchess, the de-facto “leader” of the wide receivers. With a new season inching closer, it’s clear that Funchess needs to be the go-to receiver for Cam Newton if this entire unit is to have widespread success.

Heading into his fourth NFL season, Funchess is still an enigma that hasn’t blossomed into the player that it seemed like he would become. In three seasons, he’s amassed 117 receptions for 1,684 yards and 17 touchdowns. As a whole, those numbers do not leap off of the page. But when looking at the data more closely, and overlapping that with what the Panthers have done in the off season, things seem to be aligning for Funchess to have a big year.

The first part of the conversation begins after Oct. 29. The Panthers were coming off of a 17-3 win over the NFC South rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Two days later, Kelvin Benjamin — originally tapped as the go-to receiver for Cam Newton — was shipped off to the Buffalo Bills via trade. That immediately put the spotlight on Funchess as Greg Olsen was hampered with injuries. Funchess needed to respond to the impromptu promotion, but the results were not the greatest through the end of the year.

For the remaining eight games, Funchess averaged 3.8 receptions per game for 60.6 yards per outing. Five of his eight touchdowns also came during that span. In 2017, he had only one game of more than 100 yards receiving, and that was only the second time in his professional career that he reached that milestone (the first came in his rookie season).

That type of production doesn’t scream primary passing threat. In fact, those numbers are more aligned with Funchess’s role when he was the second or third option on the team. Now, he’s expected to be the main target for Newton, but Carolina made enough moves this offseason to bring in other players that can have an impact and alleviate some of the pressure on Funchess, which could have a positive impact on his play.

The addition of Jarius Wright and Torrey Smith brings in a level of experience that was missing on this team. They are the only two receivers with more time in the NFL than Funchess, at seven and eight years respectively. Damiere Byrd and D.J. Moore seem to be the two players that can immediately have an impact in this passing unit, but that is yet to been seen. Byrd has shown improvement in his three years in the league while Moore is headed into this rookie season.

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The lack of experienced depth has continued to keep the expectations high for Funchess, but he hasn’t shown the performances to make it apparent that he’s the “guy.” Either way, the 2018 season will be a day of reckoning for the Carolina Panthers and Devin Funchess as all interested parties need him to break out of his shell.