Rookie Report Card: Devin Funchess

Dan Meylor

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Each week throughout the season, I’ll cover one or two rookies in the Rookie Report Card and try to always include the biggest performers from that particular week. On top of reviewing my expectations for each player coming into the league and covering how he’s performed at the NFL level to this point, I’ll actually give him a grade in three categories. Those categories are performance to date, 2015 potential and long term upside.

The series continues with a look at Devin Funchess.

Devin Funchess, WR CAR
Week Nine Stats: four receptions, 64 receiving yards, one touchdown reception

As a fan of Big Ten football, I got to watch Funchess play often over the last three seasons while he split time between tight end and wide receiver at Michigan. Like many, my feelings towards his professional upside wavered along with his inconsistencies on the field.

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As he finished his junior season with the Wolverines, I tried many times to handicap his potential. There were times he looked like a matchup nightmare, overpowering and outjumping smaller defensive backs. Unfortunately, there were also times he looked overmatched, not running crisp routes and dropping catchable passes.

The most impressive part about Funchess’ game is his physicality. Standing 6’-4” tall and weighing 232 pounds, he has ideal size. Nearly impossible to knock off his route by defensive backs playing press coverage, he extends his arms at the line of scrimmage to keep defenders off him. When he reaches the top of his route, he regularly shows the ability and strength to gently shove defenders out of his path without extending his arms and getting flagged for offensive pass interference.

Most effective as a possession receiver, he looks his best running short to intermediate routes. Although he showed the ability to get over the top of the defense at times while in college, his rather pedestrian 40-time at the scouting combine (4.70) suggested that wouldn’t be the case on Sundays – although he rectified that slow time at his pro day by running the 40 in 4.47 seconds.

As I mentioned above, I struggled at times figuring out how Funchess would transition to the NFL. Although there were certainly bright spots, there were also some reasons to worry. Before the NFL Draft, I wrote the following about his faults in the Rookie Bust Mock Draft.

“Funchess is one of the most interesting prospects in this year’s draft. Half tight end and half wide receiver, he’s too big for most cornerbacks to cover and too athletic and fast for linebackers to stick with. Even as a matchup nightmare however, there are flaws to Funchess’ game.

Very slow in and out of his breaks, Funchess doesn’t show the burst of a strong route runner. With the ball in the air, he seems to lack the killer instinct to go up and get it like many with his size possess. Instead, he consistently lets the ball get to his body rather than plucking it from the air with his hands, causing him to have far too many drops as a Wolverine.

…While he has the upside to bust out due to his impressive size/speed combination, he also has the potential to just plain bust due to his questionable ball skills and unwillingness to use his size as an advantage.”

As you can probably tell, I wasn’t convinced his game would translate well to the NFL. The most concerning part of his game revolved around his inability to make plays on jump balls despite his impressive size. Despite a huge catch radius, good leaping ability and excellent body control, he simply didn’t high point the ball in college as well as you’d expect from a receiver of his stature and skill level – which was enough to scare me off from drafting him in any rookie drafts.

After he was selected by the Panthers early in the second round of the draft, many expected Funchess to contribute early but that hasn’t been the case despite a season ending injury to fellow lanky wide out Kelvin Benjamin. He struggled to see the field early in the season as he nursed a hamstring injury and failed to overtake Corey Brown, Ted Ginn Jr. or Jericho Cotchery on the depth chart.

Like when he was at Michigan, Funchess was up and down in his limited opportunities early in the year. He made a nice leaping catch against the Seahawks in week six, but also dropped two passes in the game. Making a pair of nice catches against the Packers including an impressive 52-yard grab against tight coverage and a 14-yard grab on a slant for his first career touchdown, he also seemed to look lackadaisical and uninterested off the line of scrimmage at times.

Since that game against the Packers, his playing time has been increasing slowly. Over the last three games, he’s hauled in nine passes for 179 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Sunday’s touchdown came on a third-and-four from the five yard line early in the third quarter. Lined up wide to the left, he ran a quick out at the goal line and beat the defender for what should have been an easy score. The throw from Cam Newton was slightly behind him and high though, but Funchess made the catch look easy – turning his body, reaching up and snatching the ball out of the air with his hands.

His second noteworthy play of the game came early in the fourth quarter with the Panthers up by 27 points. Facing a third-and-13 from midfield, the rookie receiver ran a go-route from wide left and Newton threw him a jump ball down the left sideline. Funchess skied over the defensive back to make the 35-yard catch.

The play was without a doubt the biggest sign of progress so far in his rookie season. Rather than running under the ball and waiting for it to come down to make the catch as he did far too often while in college, he was aggressive, leaping for the catch and securing it with both hands. Although it was only one catch in a game that was out of hand, dynasty owners should be happy to see their rookie wide out using his size as he did.

At this point, it’s obviously impossible to come to any conclusions when it comes to Funchess. He’s shown some of the inconsistencies that plagued him throughout his years in college, but he’s also flashed the playmaking ability of late that made him attractive to many coming out of college. To be completely honest, after watching him play through ten games I’m starting to think I may have been wrong about his ability to be a fantasy asset.

For those who have him rostered in dynasty leagues, he should be considered a strong hold at this point. Because of his size, as well as the fact that he plays with a top quarterback, dynasty owners should be optimistic about his upside. Once he gets some more experience, he could prove to be a weekly WR2 or WR3.

At this point, it looks as if Funchess has the chance to bust out for fantasy owners and I’m becoming less and less convinced that he’ll ever just plain bust.

funchess report

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dan meylor