Kelvin Benjamin diagnosid with a season ending ACL tear

While it will be hard for Funchess to duplicate the success Benjamin had as a rookie, Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Funchess is ready to handle all the Panthers have already dumped on his plate. By the time the cart came onto the field, Benjamin was surrounded by Newton, receiver Ted Ginn Jr., head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion and Rivera.

Wayne is intriguing. His 1,070 career catches for 14,345 yards and 82 touchdowns are more than the combined total of Carolina’s remaining receivers.

The devastating news of Benjamin’s torn ACL didn’t arrive until much later in the day and now anybody with an interest in the Panthers future is hoping and praying Funchess can provide some sort of relief to the sudden loss of the team’s top playmaker.

Ginn has never been a full-time starter and entering his ninth season, second with the Panthers (played for them in 2013), he likely maxes out as a slot receiver. Tight end Greg Olsen will be counted on to be a huge part of the receiving game.

Benjamin was crossing the sector when he stopped to plant whereas operating a route and went to the turf in a heap with each palms wrapped across the prime of his left knee. Benjamin, who is 6 feet 5, caught 73 passes for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns during the 2014 season after Carolina selected him with the 28th pick of the draft.

“Benjamin was Carolina”™s No. 1 receiver.

While nothing will be official until he undergoes an MRI, reports have emerged saying that Delmas tore his right ACL, which is the same injury he suffered last December.

Rivera describes Benjamin’s condition in the training camp to be in “tremendous shape”, and the receiver was performing well, too.

When receiver Kelvin Benjamin was carted off the field Wednesday morning, he left behind a major void. He was targeted 122 times and expect that number to bump up even more with Benjamin out. Benjamin admitted less than two weeks ago that he spent a lot of last season coasting on his talents rather than working on the fine details. “We’ve got the vet in (Jerricho Cotchery) and we’ve got some young guys that are really fighting and battling and doing a great job”.

For the Jags, though, it may be just what they need to get pas the Panthers.

Tuesday NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was forced to spend four hours with Tom Brady before today’s DeflateGate hearing, discussing a possible settlement of their court case where Brady wants to pretend he didn’t order two Patriots locker room schlubs to deflate footballs in a specific effort to circumvent NFL rules, or as we humans like to call it; cheating. The Patriots won the Super Bowl previous year by creating mismatches against the Seahawks’ physical-to-a-fault cornerbacks. Funchess has also been ruled out of Saturday’s game as he deals with a hamstring injury he sustained on Wednesday.