Devin Funchess Pick Signals 'Basketball on Turf' Look for Cam Newton, Panthers

One of the biggest stories of the 2014 offseason was Cam Newton's lack of weapons, but the story of the Panthers' 2015 season will be written around Newton's new arsenal.

Late in the first round of last year's draft, and lacking any credible receiving threats, the Carolina Panthers pinned their hopes on Kelvin Benjamin. Stepping into the No. 1 receiver role as an NFL rookie is an incredibly tall task; fortunately for the Panthers, the 6'5", 240-pound Benjamin measured up.

After bolstering their defense with Shaq Thompson in the first round this year, the Panthers decided to give Newton another huge target—and NFC South defenses another huge problem—by drafting 6'4" Devin Funchess out of Michigan. Together with Benjamin and 6'5", 253-pound Pro Bowl tight end Greg Olsen, the Panthers now have one of the biggest corps of pass-catchers in the NFL.

This is the latest step in the NFL's verticality arms race. As All-Pro Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman's height and leaping ability carried the Seahawks to one Super Bowl championship and very nearly another, NFL teams started snapping up lanky, explosive corners. Now, coming off back-to-back playoff runs that didn't make it out of the second round, the Panthers have the skyscrapers to top the NFC's best.

Of course, no matter how dominant the Panthers receivers are in one-on-one situations, Carolina's passing game hangs on Newton's ability to take the next step.

As Bucky Brooks of NFL Media explained, the addition of Funchess can help Newton do just that:

Benjamin's huge catch radius and Olsen's sticky hands mean Newton doesn't have to thread passes through needles to complete them—and his receivers don't necessarily have to be open to go get the ball and make the catch, either.

Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Funchess dramatically upgrades the size on the other side of the field. Now, all of Newton's top three targets are big ones. The degree of difficulty for Newton just dropped significantly. The Funchess pick doesn't just mean all the Panthers receivers are tall, long-armed guys who will cause all kinds of individual matchup problems, though.

It means the Panthers' passing game will finally be multidimensional.

Benjamin was the Panthers' only legitimate outside threat in 2014, and Newton had to force-feed him targets. Per Pro-Football-Reference.com, Benjamin's 145 targets were tied for the sixth-most in the NFL. Meanwhile, Olsen was Newton's only option in the middle of the field; his 123 targets placed him 28th.

It's hard to overstate this: The Panthers finished 19th in the NFL in pass attempts yet had two players in the top 28 in targets. Panthers quarterbacks threw to either Benjamin or Olsen on 49.2 percent of their 545 collective attempts.

Opposing defenses were able to lock onto the Panthers' top pair, and the rookie Benjamin struggled to catch the ball. Per Pro Football Focus, Benjamin's drop rate was third-worst in the NFL. Despite a highlight reel of circus catches easily made, Benjamin struggled to make the routine chain-movers.

Unfortunately, the same could be said of Funchess during his college days.

"Pass-catching is labored," Lance Zierlein of NFL.com noted. "Catches back half of football at times. Tagged with 20 drops over last three seasons. Isn't a lock to high-point a throw and doesn't attack throws. Won't win enough 50/50 throws."

Panthers scouts, however, must have seen something different. Per Jonathan Jones of The Charlotte Observer, the Panthers had a first-round grade on Funchess.

The significant pick value the Panthers gave up in the trade to snag Funchess reflects that. Carolina traded St. Louis its second-, third- and sixth-round picks to move up and take the Michigan wideout. But as Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk pointed out, the Panthers had a slew of late-round picks unlikely to make the Panthers roster.

Funchess will make an immediate impact without even catching a pass. By forcing opposing defenses to respect his size and physicality, he'll open up the secondary for Benjamin and Olsen. By forcing defenses to play soft against the pass, he'll open up the running game.

Even if, like Benjamin, he struggles with consistency as a rookie, Funchess will still give Newton a big, friendly set of hands to throw to when the pass rush closes in—and a safety blanket the quarterback didn't have during a 2014 season in which he took a lot of hits.

Benjamin, Funchess and Olsen won't be the best receiving trio in the NFL. They won't be the most sure-handed or most athletic. They won't even be the tallest. But the addition of Funchess makes the receiving corps the best Newton's ever had to work with and positions the Panthers well to win the NFC South for the third straight time.