Devin Funchess has a lot to think about.
There’s a lot to think about when you’re a 24-year old former second-round pick who is entering a contract year, a lot to think about when you’re entering training camp as the #1 wide receiver for the first time in your career, a lot to think about when the league, your coaching staff and your teammates are hopeful that you can improve on a 63 catch, 840 yard and eight touchdown 2017 performance.
People wonder how Funchess and the rest of the offense, specifically Cam Newton, will adjust to a new offensive coordinator for the Panthers as Norv Turner hopes to bring the success he has had over his NFL career that has spanned over a quarter-decade, but there will be some adjustments for not only the wideout, but for Newton as well, who will be a full-go for training camp after barely participating in 2017 following shoulder surgery.
“All I think about is, last year, [Cam] not being able to do OTAs and mini-camp – so him doing it this year, he had to learn a new system; that makes you think different, that makes you feel different and everybody, even myself, I had to go through my ups and downs just running things different, looking at the progression different, my routes different and my releases,” Funchess said about the team adjusting to Turner’s offense during spring workouts.
He admitted that Turner gave the receiver an earful after he failed to get deep enough on one of his routes – Funchess was given some pointers on what kind of coach Turner would be from his cousin, former San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates, who played for Turner from 2007 to 2012.
“Everybody’s got their ups and downs, I’m sure, but tomorrow we should all be locked in and have fun.”
While there are certainly questions to be answered on the field, the questions off the field of a new contract are beginning to pick up – especially as a certain NFC South wide receiver says he will hold out of training camp until he receives a new contract.
But Funchess will have none of that – saying that if the team wants to sign him to a new deal, that “has nothing to do with” him, relating his situation to running back Todd Gurley, who just signed a four-year, $60m contract with $45m reportedly guaranteed, saying that Gurley actually invited Funchess to vacation with him in Cancun just before the deal was announced, having no idea that a new deal was imminent.
“I was just with Todd the whole weekend, he didn’t know, he went to Cancun,” Funchess said of last year’s Offensive Player of the Year. “He didn’t know that his deal was coming, he got a blessing – he called me and it’s just a blessing.”
While a new contract might be tempting to think about, sometimes the inflated realities of the NFL vs. the harsh realities of the real world can come into focus quickly, and that happened today after an accident on I-85 delayed multiple players’ arrival to Wofford, including Funchess, who left Charlotte at 7a and didn’t arrive in Spartanburg – a trip that usually takes 90 minutes, tops – until after ten.
“There was an accident on the freeway, I was literally sitting there at a standstill; I parked my car, got out and talked to the lady behind me; I didn’t know what was going on – two cars flipped over and it’s just a blessing that I’m here,” Funchess said. “Whatever comes, comes. I don’t have time to be worrying about anything.”
“When we pulled up on it, it was bad. The car was flipped over, the other car was flipped over on some boards that were on a trailer on the car, and then there was a big 18-wheeler in the front, so I guess the 18-wheeler stopped and the other car flipped and then the car that had the trailer on it stopped and then another car ramped up off of that. I just hope everybody’s alright.”
“I’m just blessed to be here. I know there [are] people dead that I grew up with, there’s people that took the wrong path, so it’s just – it’s a blessing just for me to be here.”
As far a new contract?
“If it comes, it comes. It don’t matter to me. All that stuff’s going to come.”
