Devin Funchess to Carolina Panthers: Full Draft-Pick Breakdown

It’s pretty clear what the Carolina Panthers are set to do now on offense.  They have a 6’5” Kelvin Benjamin playing wide receiver.  They have a 6’5” Greg Olsen playing tight end.  Now, they have added a 6’4” Devin Funchess.  Look out, NFC South, because the Panthers are going to be throwing the ball high and daring you to match up with one of the tallest receiving corps in the NFL.

There are two parts to analyzing this deal.  First, you have to analyze the player, and second, you have to analyze the trade.

I’m not sold on the trade.  The Panthers gave up a third-rounder and a sixth-rounder to move up 16 slots.  That’s about what the classic Jimmy Johnson trade chart (as seen here) would indicate is appropriate value, but that model undervalues later picks.  It’s far from the worst trade I’ve ever seen, but the Approximate Value method of evaluating trades, as recorded by Advanced Football Analytics’ Draft Trade Evaluator, indicates the Panthers gave up about 6.6 points of value to get 3.7 in return.  That’s not ideal.

In addition, I’m not positive they had to trade up to get Funchess.  There’s a good chance he would have been available back at pick No. 57, and even if he was not, there were several other second-round-caliber receivers who may have been.  Even if you believe Funchess was the best of the bunch, I’m not sure he was worth giving up one pick each on Day 2 and Day 3 to go up and get him.

However, Funchess can’t control what the Panthers gave up to get him.  How good is the player?

Well, let’s put it this way: I had Funchess as a better player on my board then the Panthers’ first-round pick, Shaq Thompson.  Like Thompson, Funchess’ position is somewhat in question at the NFL level.  Some have him listed as a tight end, and others have him listed as a receiver.  He played both positions in college, and he set the Michigan record for most yards by a tight end in a season with 748 in 2013.

Leave his position to one side for the moment, however.  Funchess' speed and body control, coupled with his 6’4”, 232-pound frame, is a combination you don’t get.  Don’t pay too much attention to his awful 4.7-second 40-yard-dash time from the combine, as he wasn’t at his top form.  At his pro day, he put up a much more respectable 4.47, according to NFL.com.  Even if the truth is somewhere in the middle, that’s enough speed when coupled with his vertical-leap ability and raw size.

Funchess is a matchup nightmare in the slot.  He’s not Jimmy Graham, despite what people try to call him, but he is, essentially, a second Kelvin Benjamin.  He’s going to dominate as a possession receiver, posting up smaller defenders and making contested catches in the red zone.

Give Funchess room to accelerate, and he’s going to make big plays.  He’s not the fastest or most athletic player in the world, but he builds up to impressive speed and rumbles.  He’s not a dynamic turn-on-the-jets sort of player, but he shows enough shiftiness to have the potential to be a big-play threat.

He has downside too, of course.  His 2014 season wasn’t as good as previous years—he was playing with a bad ankle, a bad quarterback and a head coach who would be fired after the season was over.  His combine performance was frighteningly bad when compared to normal second-round receivers or even his own pro day.  He also has the same problem as Benjamin, in that he has inconsistent hands, with 20 drops over the last three seasons.

Year	Position	Rec	Yds	Avg	TD
2012	TE	15	234	15.6	5
2013	TE	49	748	15.3	6
2014	WR	62	733	11.8	4
Total	TE/WR	126	1,715	13.6	15

That’s one of the two problems I have with the Funchess selection overall—he’s very much the same type of player as Benjamin.  While that can work, and it should be a nightmare against shorter secondaries, I prefer having complementary receivers, rather than matching sets.  However, with Devin Smith off the board, the next pure receiver was likely Jaelen Strong, who is another possession-receiver type.  You take what’s available on the board when you pick.

The other problem is that all these big receivers are great assuming Cam Newton has more than three seconds to throw the football.  The Panthers still haven’t addressed their offensive line needs, and both Pittsburgh’s T.J. Clemmings and Oregon’s Jake Fisher were still available at the time.  With no third-round pick, the Panthers will almost certainly start Michael Oher and Nate Chandler in 2015, and that’s a major issue.

Let’s put it this way: The trade was not a good one.  The Panthers simply gave up too much value, especially with the need for an offensive tackle still hanging out there.  It’s also now unlikely that they’ll be able to get a safety to replace Roman Harper.  Funchess and Shaq Thompson are the only two players the Panthers are likely to find in this draft that will contribute in 2015.

None of this is a problem with Funchess, however.  They picked a receiver to match Cam Newton’s weaknesses.  Funchess should be a slot receiver/move tight end right off the bat, starting ahead of Ted Ginn—Ginn will stick around as a fourth receiver and the top deep threat.  Funchess won’t replace Jerricho Cotchery right off the bat, but third receivers are used frequently enough to count as starters in my book.

All hail the era of the tall receiver—those under 6’3” don’t need to apply.  In Carolina, they’re building skyscrapers.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the Carolina Panthers during the NFL Draft.  Follow him @BryKno on twitter.