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The veteran cornerback has never seen such a compilation of speed amassed at one position on a roster in any of his 10 NFL training camps.
”Oh man Leonard Floyd Jersey , we got some fast receivers,” Munnerlyn said. ”I was like, `Wow, almost everyone runs a 4.4 or lower. That’s crazy.’ We have some speed on this team – and we probably needed it.”
That’s an understatement.
The Panthers offense stagnated last season as quarterback Cam Newton found himself with no deep threats after Ted Ginn Jr. left to sign with the New Orleans Saints as a free agent and youngsters Curtis Samuel and Damierre Byrd went down with injuries.
The trickledown effect of not having anyone to stretch the field, combined with three-time 1,000 yard receiving tight end Greg Olsen missing most of the season with a foot injury made Newton’s job last season extremely difficult. It also played havoc with the team’s running game as opposing defenses were able to walk an extra defender into the box. Carolina still finished 11-5 and earned a wild card despite finishing 19th in offense but lacked the firepower to make a run in the NFC playoffs.
General manager Marty Hurney wasn’t about to let that happen again.
The Panthers upgraded their speed at wide receiver by trading for Torrey Smith, signing free agent Jarius Wright and selecting the elusive D.J. Moore from Maryland in the first round of the NFL draft.
Smith has averaged 16.4 yards per catch during his seven NFL seasons with the Ravens, 49ers and, most recently, the Super Bowl champion Eagles. Wright joins the Panthers after six seasons with the Vikings, where he worked under new Panthers offensive coordinator Norv Turner and averaged 13.3 yards per catch. Moore caught 80 passes last season at Maryland and earned a reputation as a receiver who makes defenders miss and piles up yards after the catch.
With Samuel and Byrd coming back from injuries Sherrick McManis Jersey , Newton should have no shortage of options when it comes to stretching the field.
”I think we would probably have the fastest track team in the NFL for sure,” Wright said. ”We got a 1A and a 1B team. That’s how fast our receiving corps is.”
Coach Ron Rivera is quietly optimistic.
He said the Panthers ”have some speed that we haven’t had in a while” at the wide receiver and defensive back positions.
”I think that is a good thing for us,” Rivera said. ”We can be a fast team.”
All of that is good news for Newton, who was limited to 22 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions in 2017 – two years after throwing 35 TD passes and 10 interceptions while earning league MVP honors and leading the Panthers to the Super Bowl.
The logical thinking is if defenses have to honor the deep threat it will allow Olsen and No. 1 receiver Devin Funchess to work underneath the coverage – and also free up rushing lanes for running back Christian McCaffrey and Newton, the team’s leading rusher last season.
Funchess may not be the fastest wide receiver on the roster, but he figures to play a huge role in the passing game.
He moved over to the ”X” position, or No. 1 receiver spot, during the middle of last season after the Panthers abruptly traded former No. 1 draft pick Kelvin Benjamin to the Buffalo Bills.
Funchess and Benjamin were considered similar possession-type receivers, and Hurney said at the time he wanted to get more speed on the field.
Funchess responded with some solid games in Benjamin’s absence, and finished the season with 63 receptions for 840 yards and eight touchdowns despite routinely seeing double coverage. He’ll have plenty of motivation to improve on that production given that he’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the season.
”I focus on strictly football and that part has nothing to do with me,” Funchess said. ”If (the Panthers) want to (get a deal done) Matt Paradis Jersey , they can. … I’m out here to play football, work with coach Turner, work with the rest of the wide receivers, and talk a little trash to (Panthers linebacker) Thomas Davis.”
Wright likes what he sees so far from the wideouts.
”I think we have one of the best groups in the NFL,” Wright said. ”We have so many guys that bring a lot of different things to the game. But every guy can run out there. With so many playmakers, an experienced offensive coordinator and an MVP quarterback like Cam Newton our offense should be rolling.”
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Kings coach John Stevens told Dustin Brown last summer he could still be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL after failing to hit that threshold for five consecutive seasons.
In retrospect, Stevens might have undersold what Brown is still capable of achieving.
Brown scored his fourth goal of the game 23 seconds into overtime and the Kings moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
Brown scored on a one-timer from the left circle to put the Kings one point ahead of Anaheim in the division, with Anze Kopitar setting up his 28th goal of the season. Brown set a career high with his 61st point.
”I thought his game was trending in the right direction last year,” Stevens said. ”I said if you’re not at least a 20-goal scorer again, then I don’t know what I’m doing. And he kind of laughed, but you could see he believed it Jeremiah George Jersey , too. And he is.”
Brown is the 14th player in Kings history to score four goals in a game and the second to do so this season. Kopitar did it on March 22 against Colorado.
Tobias Rieder also scored, and Daniel Brickley had an assist for his first point in his NHL debut. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for the Kings’ fourth win in five games.
Drew Doughty had an assist to become the fourth Kings defenseman with 50 in a season. Doughty also set a career high with his 60th point.
Matt Dumba scored for the second straight game, and Nate Prosser had a short-handed goal for the Wild, who will play Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs.
Ryan Murphy and Eric Staal each had a goal, and Alex Stalock made 23 saves. Mikko Koivu had three assists and Mikael Granlund had two assists.
Brown got his first hat trick since Feb. 25, 2012, by scoring with 49.3 seconds left in the second.
Prosser tied it at 4-4 at 9:24 of the third period after Staal scored his 41st at 5:42 during a delayed penalty to cut the deficit to 4-3.
”There’s a lot of good you can take from this game,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”You battled back against the team that’s the best third-period team in the League. They stayed with the program and consequently got rewarded for it a little bit.”
Brown got the Kings on the board 55 seconds into the game, but Murphy tied the game at 1 when his shot into traffic redirected off Christian Folin and past Quick at 3:12, and Dumba put the Wild ahead at 5:02.
But Brown kept creating scoring chances. He made it 2-all when he scored during a 5-on-3 power play at 7:42, waiting at the front of the net to score off Jeff Carter’s centering pass.
”You just plug away really Adrian Amos Jersey ,” Brown said of his turnaround. ”I got an opportunity this year to play big minutes and be a huge part of the team. That’s probably the more important thing is that I was able to help the team make the playoffs.”
However, Brown was more concerned with how the Kings let the Wild back into the game and what it might portend headed into the playoffs.
”I don’t know what it is in our DNA, but we seem to make it hard on ourselves a lot,” Brown said. ”The thing is we do that and then we come back and win, so the stats probably lie a little bit when you see the record holding a lead after two periods. We try to get heroics every night, which is probably something we need to avoid next week.”
NOTES: Kings F Torrey Mitchell and D Paul LaDue did not play because of flu-like symptoms. The Kings recalled F Jonny Brodzinski and D Oscar Fantenberg from their AHL affiliate on Thursday, but both were scratched against the Wild. … The Wild signed D Louis Belpedio to a two-year, entry-level contract on Thursday. Belpedio, a third-round draft pick of the Wild in 2014 who played college hockey at Miami of Ohio, could make his NHL debut on Saturday.
UP NEXT
Wild: Visit the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.
Kings: Host the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
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