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Matt Waldman - Devin Funchess, A Future 'Middle Class' Julio Jones?

Saca312

By Saca312,
in Carolina Panthers

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TheSpecialJuan Grand Master

TheSpecialJuan

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Saca312 said:

Over the course of the past four weeks, Funchess has more than confirmed to be a competent replacement for Kelvin Benjamin. His production the past few games has been unreal, despite the few drops he's had over the last two weeks.

DQa3QcjUEAAMjE3.jpg

That's solid production. Really solid. 

It's even enough to make one particular analyst turn his head towards Funchess.

If you haven't heard of Matt Waldman, he's been one particular draft analyst I really enjoyed over the off-season. He's known to do incredible work and give very good, insightful analysis. Many people respect him and his ideas on certain players, teams, and future draft classes. 

Recently, Matt Waldman even began drawing comparisons of Funchess to Julio Jones. Seriously. While Funchess is certainly not close to Julio Jones total skillset, he's shown plenty of flashes of being what Matt Waldman calls a future "middle class" version of Julio. 

Take a look at one of his mini-breakdown videos.

For those wondering what Matt Waldman means by his comparison, he answers that question here:

A very nice analogy and explanation on his opinion on Funchess. While Funchess isn't close to Julio's level of skill, he's getting very close to Julio's style of play. 

Just something to think about.

Lovely, good stuff

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shaqattaq Grand Master

shaqattaq

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Vagrant said:

He needs to figure out how to run routes to the first down marker. I have been really encouraged about everything about his game except field awareness. 

I haven't noticed this. In the clip provided by Waldman, he gets to the 1st down but has to come back for the ball. Same thing happened against the saints on the 4th down catch that a lot of people wanted challenged. He has to come back and the CB makes a heads up play to push him out of bounds. I'm sure thter's room for improvement considering his lack of experience (TE in college, 2nd or 3rd option until week 9), but he'll get it.

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Pantha-kun Mentor

Pantha-kun

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What I've been the most impressed with Funchess , post KB, is his ability to move around with the ball in his hands. I've seen multiple times with him threading down the sideline, maneuvering around defenders, and even powering through intiall contact has been impressive.

The only thing that bothers me has been his catching consistency, he's dropped some important balls in 2 games straight (although to be fair, so has just about ever other receiver on the roster ). In general we've had problems with WRs dropping passes and in general not being able to catch much of anything if they're getting bodied up by a defender thats also competing for the ball at the same time , lack of physicality on 50/50 balls and lack of catching skills bites us in the ass quite a bit. 

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Ricky Spanish Grand Master

Ricky Spanish

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Posted

Funchess has been pretty damn good this year. His route running has improved tremendously, he's very fluid in his movement and he's deceptively faster than he looks.

My biggest issue with him is catching the tough/clutch plays. KB wasn't a great route runner, he wasn't fast, and he wasn't as big of a threat with YAC as Funchess, but he was a bully when the ball was in the air and I trusted him to come down with the big catch when needed. Funchess is playing bigger than he has in the past, but he keeps missing the jump ball opportunities that KB would normally come down with. 

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frash.exe Apprentice

frash.exe

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Posted

funchess wouldn’t be a no. 1 receiver in my system personally but the guy is obviously proving he has talent and we might actually have a receiver we drafted in the second round make it to 1000 yards this year

 

that’ll be the first time that’s happened in god knows how long

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Pantha-kun Mentor

Pantha-kun

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Hey, here's a fun fact. Terell Owens and Jerry Rice were both 23 when they started their rookie seasons, Funchess is 23 now. Compare rookie stats at same age :

Terrell Owens age 23 : 35 receptions, 520 receiving yards, 4 receiving touchdowns

Jerry Rice age 23: 49 receptions, 927 receiving yards, 3 receiving touchdowns

Funchess age 23: 54 receptions, 703 receiving yards, 6 receiving touchdowns (1547 career receiving yards)

To be fair Rice started in a totally different era in the mid 80s and similar with owens in mid 90s. Their stats mightof been alot higher in the new offense friendly league where defenders cant do much to lock them up beyond 5 yards .

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JARROD Contributor

JARROD

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Posted

All I can see are the catches that he lets go through his hands and balls he should come back to he doesn’t.

he stays away from contact, that one sideline throw Cam threw up came down in his hands uncontested and he dropped it, never know could have been the difference in us coming back in that New Orleans game.

hes garbage

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