Through the first four games of his rookie year, Carolina receiver Kelvin Benjamin had three touchdown catches. During the Panthers' 4-0 start to this season, Benjamin has had a much different end zone.
"'Oh, you get to go to the pool this day,' for me, that was like scoring a touchdown," Benjamin said Tuesday, describing his rehab from an ACL tear. "'Oh we get on the bike this day.' All right, I can get on the bike, I couldn't do that a week ago."
It wasn't supposed to be like this, of course. After he destroyed Panthers' rookie records with 73 catches, 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns, Benjamin was destroying defensive backs at training camp. Then, about an hour into the first joint practice with the Dolphins, he made an ill-fated cut in a one-on-one drill.
"In this league, you sign up for it. You know there's a chance that you're going to go out there and get hurt," Benjamin said. "It's just it was right before the season. It happens. You can't let it hold you down. You can't let that define you."
So far, the Panthers haven't let the vision of Benjamin clutching his knee that morning in Spartanburg be their defining moment of 2015. But as expected, the passing game sans a No. 1 wideout isn't striking much fear into opposing defenses. Only the Rams, 49ers and Vikings have thrown for fewer yards per game and stacked boxes have stifled Jonathan Stewart's season. So it's impossible not to think "what if?"
"I hate to say it, but I did this morning," coach Ron Rivera admitted. "I walked in and there he was at his locker. I just kept thinking, 'Golly.'"
What's made Benjamin's loss more painful is the slow start of Devin Funchess. It wasn't realistic to assume he'd match Benjamin's incredible rookie year, but it's not wrong to think the second-round pick should have more than three catches for 38 yards through four games. The Panthers have been working on getting Funchess to make better use of his 6-foot-4 frame. They're still waiting.
"I think [Benjamin's absence] has been a bit of a hindrance to Devin's development," Rivera said. "When you have a guy that you're very similar in stature, and you watch him do the things we're trying to get Devin to do, he doesn't have an example. Devin could sit there and watch Kelvin do it, and say, 'Man, OK, that's how I should do it.'"
When asked what his most serious injury was before his ACL tear, Benjamin was at a loss.
"He jammed his finger," chimed in Philly Brown, Benjamin's locker neighbor and good friend.
"When I met him at the Combine, you know what he told me? 'I ain't never been hurt.'"
That Brown and Benjamin can joke about it now is another step in the rehab process. It's not easy to go from perennially healthy to a dead stop. Just ask Luke Kuechly. But after Benjamin underwent surgery last month, he began accepting his 2015 fate.
Later this week, he'll get to ditch crutches. It'll be another touchdown you won't see on the scoresheet.
"You can't do nothing about it but try and get better and get ready for next year," Benjamin said. "Game days are hard, just watching your team go out there and ball. You want to contribute, but you can't.
"I'm yelling at the TV every Sunday. That's what I'm going to keep doing until I get back on the field."
