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Gettleman: Panthers “Have to Adjust” to Life Without Benjamin

August 31, 2015 Bill Voth News Bill Belichick, Brenton Bersin, Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers, Corey Brown, Devin Funchess, Dolphins, Jarrett Boykin, Jerricho Cotchery, Kelvin Benjamin, Luke Kuechly, Mike Brown, Preseason, Randy Moss, Ron Rivera, Ted Ginn, Training Camp

[vc_row no_margin=”true”][vc_column width=”1/1″]Cam Newton or Luke Kuechly are usually the best players on the field during a Carolina Panthers’ practice. They weren’t in Spartanburg this year.

Receiver Kelvin Benjamin did whatever he wanted at Wofford, dominating the defense through 12 training camp practices.

During the 13th, Benjamin made an ill-fated plant on his left foot during a one-on-one drill against a Dolphins’ defensive back. A few minutes later, the Panthers’ top wideout was carted off, past the man who drafted him.

“I think he was on his way to a monster year,” Gettleman told BBR Monday. “You could see the maturity, you could see the growth. He came to camp in absolutely fantastic shape. He was a monster. He was catching everything.”

So now what?

Filling a hole as large as the one Benjamin left is pretty much impossible in August.

Perhaps Kevin Norwood can help, but a fourth-round pick who caught nine passes last year and was on the verge of being released by Seattle is unlikely a savior.

The unfortunate truth is when Benjamin went down, so did the odds of the Panthers having a No. 1 wideout in 2015.

Rookie Devin Funchess isn’t ready. Jerricho Cotchery, Ted Ginn and Corey Brown are best suited as No. 3s. There isn’t much separation between Brenton Bersin, Jarrett Boykin and Mike Brown.

Yet the Panthers are still going to play 16 games.

“You don’t replace a No. 1 wide receiver. What you do is you adjust and have all those guys be the best receiver they can be,” Gettleman said. “You don’t want any of them to think they have to be Kelvin. Devin has to be the best Devin. Jerricho has to be the best Jerricho. Corey has to be the best Corey.”

According to coach Ron Rivera, Brown has been trying too hard to be Benjamin. That’s tough to pull off when you’re an undrafted guy who’s six inches shorter than a first-round pick.

Brown claims his sudden case of the drops isn’t like him, and maybe he deserves some benefit of the doubt. His five drops this preseason nearly triple his total in 36 targets as a rookie.

“There is nobody in Charlotte that watched him play last year that expected this,” Gettleman said. “You tell me you thought he had bad hands last year, I’ll tell you, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Nobody saw it coming.

“Fortunately for us it’s the preseason, and he’s tough-minded, determined, and he’ll get through it. There isn’t one great receiver I’ve been around that hasn’t had a couple tough days at the office.”

Gettleman did have a Benjamin backup plan, but right now it’s impossible to tell if it was a good one.

Funchess, while not as wowing as Benjamin was his first spring and summer, has the potential and body type unlike the rest of the receivers on the roster. The second-round pick would have been fast-tracked if hadn’t pulled a hamstring about an hour after Benjamin tore his knee. Nearly three weeks later, Funchess is still having issues.

“Devin’s just got to play. He’s missed two weeks which are killing him,” Gettleman said. “Every snap is an experience, it’s a résumé builder, it’s an experience builder. Think of how many snaps he’s missed the last two weeks. He has to get rolling.”

So less than two weeks before they open a new season, the Panthers’ receiving corps is a mess. Funchess can’t shake the soreness, Brown can’t catch, and Ginn, whose best NFL season came in 2008, may be the top option by default.

Gettleman may be tempted to bring on Randy Moss if he was still the future Hall of Famer from seven years ago instead of the one currently coaching CrossFit. Or he could have saved Reggie Wayne from the unemployment line like Bill Belichick, who’s obviously never missed on a free agent.

For now, Gettleman will wait on who he has while mining for guys like Norwood, who he was eyeing during last year’s draft.

“If you’re confident in your evaluation skills and you know a guy is talented but it’s going to take time, you have to be patient. [Former Giants general manager] Ernie [Accorsi] taught me you don’t quit on talent,” Gettleman said. “Every time I’ve seen a team make a knee-jerk reaction, it’s burned them.”

Even after adding Norwood, the Panthers will scour upcoming cuts, looking for potential pieces. They may not find gold, but there could be some help in another team’s trash.

Who can fill the role as a No. 1 receiver this year? The answer won’t be on the roster in Week 1. But the Panthers’ season didn’t necessarily end when Benjamin’s season did.

“It’s certainly not insurmountable. Last year we were missing an All-Pro defensive end. We had some rough times because it happened at an odd time, but the last eight games I’d put our defense up with anybody’s,” Gettleman said. “So you adjust, the players understand, and I’ve got to my job as well as I can do my job.”[line][vc_raw_html]

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Panthers/Truth

I would have rather seen them trade for the Ravens 6th round pick (#204) this year Darren Waller (6’6 1/8″, 238, 4.46-40, and 0 drops as a senior), who’s 6th or 7th on their depth chart. He’s taller, much faster, and has better hands than either KB or Funchess.
- Pee Dee
  
  Funch was sort of a reach to begin with (at least as a second pick) and might be damaged goods I’m afraid. Moss or Wayne are intriguing but how is our cap space looking and that’s certainly not Gettleman style. Like the Norwood addition – that’s a savvy move.
  - Flig Saduky
    
    How was Funchess a reach? He has uncanny fluidity for a player that large and has a chance to be a real mismatch nightmare in the NFL. Let’s give him a chance to prove himself before listening to those draft pundits who called his selection a reach. Most of them doubted KB last year.
    - Pee Dee
      
      I’m not a draft pundit by any stretch – reach is my word, not theirs. He has size and athletic ability like a bunch of college teams have as their main OWR – just didn’t understand why we purposely moved up the board to draft him when we had that prototype player on the roster already in KB, and we had other needs for sure. I guess right or wrong, that’s what I meant by reach and granted, best available sometimes trump the need as well. Hope I’m wrong and we have a 1-2 punch on the outside. But until then, I’ll remain skeptical, especially since Funch hasn’t been healthy for 3 (or whatever) consecutive days since he got here.
      - Flig Saduky
        
        That’s true if one views Funchess and KB as similar players, which is true aesthetically (both large receivers), but they aren’t in terms of their play styles IMO.
        
        KB’s game is predicated on his sheer size and physicality. Devin’s game is predicated more on fluidity and IQ. IMO their games actually perfectly complement each other if they had a tertiary deep threat, which is supposed to be Philly.
        
        We’ll see. IMO Gettleman’s track record so far has been encouraging in the draft. When I was looking at Devin before the draft, I thought he’d be an amazing fit in Carolina; I just wasn’t sure where they would take him, but in retrospect, it makes a lot of sense why they had a first round value on him on a very thin draft at the top. Hopefully he can get healthy soon and see the field. Thanks for clarifying the ‘reach’ part.
      - Pee Dee
        
        Thanks, good points, and nice to have a good discussion on this. I almost questioned drafting Shaq honestly at first purely looking at our needs but I totally get it – good call by Gettleman on that and I like the Williams pick for our OL – hard to tell how well that will work until the real mauling and pass pro begins when the season starts IMHO.
      - Flig Saduky
        
        No problem; I enjoy civil conversation as well. I wavered a bit on Shaq throughout the process, but I believed that he was a first round pick by the end. He still has some serious deficiencies in the run game that won’t go away anytime soon, but players with his gliding-movement skills and flexibility are rare IMO and he has a chance to develop into a blue-chip caliber player who can really provide some value as a blitzer.
        
        I liked the Williams pick as well. It remains to be seen whether he sticks at tackle, but the early returns are good. The ultimate question there for me is whether or not his length and mass can compensate for a lack of lateral agility. Worst case scenario though, i think he’d be an amazing guard.
- Flig Saduky
  
  Combine freak and has sure hands, but he’s really raw and probably wouldn’t have been able to help immediately. Waller has no release moves, can’t break hard like Funchess, isn’t the physical receiver that KB is, and only started to flash after the best receiver on GT (DeAndre Smelter) went down to injury. He only had 26 catches last year and prior to that he had a total of 25 catches in his entire career.
  
  Waller has potential, but there’s a reason why he was chosen in the 6th round this past year in a thin draft class. High ceiling, but a long way to go. He might have more consistent hands than KB and Funchess, but both of them are far, far superior football players overall.
  
  Really liked Norwood going into the draft last year. On a team with Amari Cooper, Norwood popped off the screen. No idea what happened in Seattle, but his Alabama tape was incredibly impressive. IMO there’s a real chance that his skillset has a real chance to thrive in Carolina. Extremely gritty, great frame, excellent hands, an excellent high pointer, very good ball tracker, excellent body adjustment, runs an entire route tree, enough speed to threaten over the top periodically, and extremely good when the initial play breaks down. It’s easy to see why the Panthers were very high on Norwood IMO.
Panthers/Truth

I would have rather seen them trade for the Ravens 6th round pick (#204) this year Darren Waller (6’6 1/8″, 238, 4.46-40, and 0 drops as a senior), who’s 6th or 7th on the depth chart. He’s taller, much faster, and has better hands than either KB or Funchess.
- Pee Dee
  
  Funch was sort of a reach to begin with (at least as a second pick) and might be damaged goods I’m afraid. Moss or Wayne are intriguing but how is our cap space looking and that’s certainly not Gettleman style. Like the Norwood addition – that’s a savvy move.
  - Flig Saduky
    
    How was Funchess a reach? He has uncanny fluidity for a player that large and has a chance to be a real mismatch nightmare in the NFL. Let’s give him a chance to prove himself before listening to those draft pundits who called his selection a reach. Most of them doubted KB last year.
    - Pee Dee
      
      I’m not a draft pundit by any stretch – reach is my word, not theirs. He has size and athletic ability like a bunch of college teams have as their main OWR – just didn’t understand why we purposely moved up the board to draft him when we had that prototype player on the roster already in KB, and we had other needs for sure. I guess right or wrong, that’s what I meant by reach and granted, best available sometimes trump the need as well. Hope I’m wrong and we have a 1-2 punch on the outside. But until then, I’ll remain skeptical, especially since Funch hasn’t been healthy for 3 (or whatever) consecutive days since he got here.
      - Flig Saduky
        
        That’s true if one views Funchess and KB as similar players, which is true aesthetically (both large receivers), but they aren’t in terms of their play styles IMO.
        
        KB’s game is predicated on his sheer size and physicality. Devin’s game is predicated more on fluidity and IQ. IMO their games actually perfectly complement each other if they had a tertiary deep threat, which is supposed to be Philly.
        
        We’ll see. IMO Gettleman’s track record so far has been encouraging in the draft. When I was looking at Devin before the draft, I thought he’d be an amazing fit in Carolina; I just wasn’t sure where they would take him, but in retrospect, it makes a lot of sense why they had a first round value on him on a very thin draft at the top. Hopefully he can get healthy soon and see the field. Thanks for clarifying the ‘reach’ part.
      - Pee Dee
        
        Thanks, good points, and nice to have a good discussion on this. I almost questioned drafting Shaq honestly at first purely looking at our needs but I totally get it – good call by Gettleman on that and I like the Williams pick for our OL – hard to tell how well that will work until the real mauling and pass pro begins when the season starts IMHO.
      - Flig Saduky
        
        No problem; I enjoy civil conversation as well. I wavered a bit on Shaq throughout the process, but I believed that he was a first round pick by the end. He still has some serious deficiencies in the run game that won’t go away anytime soon, but players with his gliding-movement skills and flexibility are rare IMO and he has a chance to develop into a blue-chip caliber player who can really provide some value as a blitzer.
        
        I liked the Williams pick as well. It remains to be seen whether he sticks at tackle, but the early returns are good. The ultimate question there for me is whether or not his length and mass can compensate for a lack of lateral agility. Worst case scenario though, i think he’d be an amazing guard.
- Flig Saduky
  
  Combine freak and has sure hands, but he’s really raw and probably wouldn’t have been able to help immediately. Waller has no release moves, can’t break hard like Funchess, isn’t the physical receiver that KB is, and only started to flash after the best receiver on GT (DeAndre Smelter) went down to injury. He only had 26 catches last year and prior to that he had a total of 25 catches in his entire career.
  
  Waller has potential, but there’s a reason why he was chosen in the 6th round this past year in a thin draft class. High ceiling, but a long way to go. He might have more consistent hands than KB and Funchess, but both of them are far, far superior football players overall.
  
  Really liked Norwood going into the draft last year. On a team with Amari Cooper, Norwood popped off the screen. No idea what happened in Seattle, but his Alabama tape was incredibly impressive. IMO there’s a real chance that his skillset has a real chance to thrive in Carolina. Extremely gritty, great frame, excellent hands, an excellent high pointer, very good ball tracker, excellent body adjustment, runs an entire route tree, enough speed to threaten over the top periodically, and extremely good when the initial play breaks down. It’s easy to see why the Panthers were very high on Norwood IMO.

Black and Blue Review

Black and Blue Review

Gettleman: Panthers “Have to Adjust” to Life Without Benjamin