Panthers' Devin Funchess: Casting heat upon No. 1 WR Benjamin

Wide receivers coach Ricky Proehl hinted Funchess may be pushing Kelvin Benjamin for Carolina's No. 1 WR role, the team's official site reports. "To be honest with you, where Devin is right now and where Kelvin needs to get to, I think Devin is pushing Kelvin," Proehl said. "He's realizing, 'I've got to get back, I've got to push, because this guy (Funchess) is pretty dang good.'"

Analysis:

Benjamin entered the league in 2014 as a first-round draft pick and proceeded to finish the year as fantasy's 15th-highest scoring wide receiver. Funchess, on the other hand, was taken with a second-round selection in 2015 to presumably follow in the mold of Benjamin as the two profile similarly in size. Funchess was unable to replicate anywhere near the same level of success during his own rookie year (he finished as the 57th-ranked WR in 2015), though, even with Benjamin (knee) lost for the season. Looking ahead to 2016, both players figure to maintain fantasy appeal as key contributors in the Panthers' passing game, but TE Greg Olsen may have emerged as QB Cam Newton's favorite target in 2015, Ted Ginn is currently enjoying a late-career resurgence, and the Panthers attempted the seventh-fewest passes in the NFL last year. Point being, Newton has a trio of healthy and big-bodied receivers to go along with a proven deep threat at his disposal, and there may simply not be enough targets to go around for either Benjamin nor Funchess to approach the numbers Benjamin did during his rookie campaign, regardless of who ends up atop the depth chart.