Now that the Panthers have removed the interim tag from Marty Hurney’s General Manager title, he can stop worrying about getting the job and focus solely on doing it.
One of the things that’s expected to entail this offseason is further work to improve the passing game. The Panthers replaced last year’s offensive coordinator Mike Shula with Norv Turner largely because of shortcomings in that area and it’s thought that some of their offseason will be spent rounding out the group of targets for quarterback Cam Newton.
One place where Hurney sees the potential for in-house improvement is with wide receiver Devin Funchess. Funchess stepped into the No. 1 spot on the depth chart after Kelvin Benjamin was traded last season and Hurney believes that it sparked growth as a player that he hopes will continue in 2018.
“Obviously he’s got size and he’s got good athletic ability for a guy at that position, and he’s got the desire to be good,” Hurney said, via the team’s website. “He’s still growing. We’ve just scratched the surface with Devin. He is now in the position that really maximizes his skill set, and now we just want to see him continue to grow. It’s very important to him, and you could see that in his approach. I thought you saw the improvement when he went over there full time; I think he progressed extremely well at the end of the year.”
Funchess finished the year with 63 catches for 840 yards and six touchdowns and added four catches for 79 yards in Carolina’s playoff loss to the Saints.