Kelvin Benjamin By The Numbers

[Ace_Aladdin]

8 minutes ago, Castavar said:

True. I'm actually hoping Charles Johnson or Fred Ross (yeah I know, slim chance) carves out a role on the outside. Or like you said, we are somehow able to nab Barnidge and run more 2 TE sets with CMC and Samuel working out of the slot and out of the backfield. I'm just getting tired of Funchess and KB hindering our offense. I could see if they were just average, but they are actually a negative on the field.

Ross is sleeper pickup , I think he can handle being #2 for sure but will have growing pains if he is forced to be #1

[Hogmolliesmaht]

Damn. Some of you will turn on a player in a flat second. This will only be the third season for KB and Funchess and last year could have easily been an aberration for KB, considering the ACL injury and his size. Let's see what happens this season and then pass judgement.

[Davidson Deac II]

Last year, our oline couldn't block, running backs couldn't run much, quarterback couldn't throw, and receivers couldn't get open.  With one or two exceptions, our offense as a whole sucked last year.  Singling out one person is ludicrous.  Especially when that one guy is a receiver coming off an ACL, and whose numbers depend a lot on how the line blocks, and the quarterback throws.  

[Soul Rebel]

I am more than willing to hold out a final thought on both KB and Funchess until after this season. Both had knocks coming out of college and Funch was very raw at the WR spot being a hybrid WR/TE. 

That being said, here is what I can't get out of my head:

• Panthers record without KB in 2015: 17-2 Super Bowl appearance.

We'll see now that Cam has better personnel here, but I feel like he forces the ball to KB like he did when Smitty was here. Yes KB is a big target capable of doing great things and creating mismatches, but when Cam didn't have him out there, he became a true quarterback.  

He read what defenses gave him and found the right read and made plays.  I'm not saying KB should be done here, but if he doesn't improve, or get replaced by a true WR1 that makes his role less, I think we are going to continue seeing Cam look his way regardless. 

[Davidson Deac II]

10 minutes ago, Soul Rebel said:

I am more than willing to hold out a final thought on both KB and Funchess until after this season. Both had knocks coming out of college and Funch was very raw at the WR spot being a hybrid WR/TE. 

That being said, here is what I can't get out of my head:

• Panthers record without KB in 2015: 17-2 Super Bowl appearance.

We'll see now that Cam has better personnel here, but I feel like he forces the ball to KB like he did when Smitty was here. Yes KB is a big target capable of doing great things and creating mismatches, but when Cam didn't have him out there, he became a true quarterback.  

He read what defenses gave him and found the right read and made plays.  I'm not saying KB should be done here, but if he doesn't improve, or get replaced by a true WR1 that makes his role less, I think we are going to continue seeing Cam look his way regardless. 

I will admit that we did a pretty good job spreading the ball around in 2015.  But a big reason we had success in 2015 was that we lead the league in turnover differential and in rushing yards.  Our defense forced a lot of turnovers while our offense ran the ball well and kept the turnovers down.  Last year that changed, as the defense didn't force as many  (KB had nothing to do with that) and the offense turned it over a lot more and couldn't run as well (KB had a little to do with that, but was not the primary factor).  

[The Lobo]

1 hour ago, sanjay_rajput said:

2 TE set , get Gary Barndige 

 

 

Perseverance..I respect that.

[d-dave]

30 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

Last year, our oline couldn't block, running backs couldn't run much, quarterback couldn't throw, and receivers couldn't get open.  With one or two exceptions, our offense as a whole sucked last year.  Singling out one person is ludicrous.  Especially when that one guy is a receiver coming off an ACL, and whose numbers depend a lot on how the line blocks, and the quarterback throws.  

While the stats are interesting, and nice work by the OP to put them together in something interesting, they are kind of arbitrary. Last year was poo, for everyone.  Also, KBs going to have fewer receptions, yards and TDs in losses because we were probably running the ball very effectively.

While I'm not too high on KB right now (see weight thread, maybe I'm jumping the shark), he's still our most viable WR.  Now there's a lot of competition at the WR position.  He's going to have to rise up, because there are some hungry dudes out here ready to try to take some snaps from him.  I hope he comes back for camp ready to roll.

[rico6]

Most hollow stats I've ever seen. Overated.

[GoobyPls]

Kelvin can still be a beast

 

Funchess is terrible

[KB_fan]

4 hours ago, UpstatePanther said:

Benji gets more targets from Cam when the team isnt playing well. In other words, Cam presses and tries to throw to the guy he is most comfortable with when the team is in tough games.

I bet if we studied Olsen's stats, we would see his production evenly split or even leaning more towards more production in winning efforts.

So true about Cam trying to force some things to Benji when things aren't going well.  I have a bunch of examples I can readily think of.

Would be interesting to see Olsen's stats OVER THE SAME PERIOD.

[KB_fan]

3 hours ago, Hogmolliesmaht said:

Damn. Some of you will turn on a player in a flat second. This will only be the third season for KB and Funchess

Yeah, I think the calls for getting rid of KB this season now that we have CMC & Samuel are crazy.  Heck, neither of the two rooks have set foot on the practice fields yet.... so, let's not measure them for gold jackets at Canton just yet...

This is definitely a make or break year for Kelvin.  This will be the first year he has had TRUE competition as one of our stars on offense (Greg doesn't really count as there was no question of Greg or Kelvin.)  But with CMC & Samuel, targets to Kelvin could decrease sharply... 

But we still need big outside guys.  For now KB is on the roster like it or not barring something totally shocking... I'm ok giving him one more chance, especially now that our offense won't rely so heavily on him!

[hepcat]

12 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

So true about Cam trying to force some things to Benji when things aren't going well.  I have a bunch of examples I can readily think of.

Would be interesting to see Olsen's stats OVER THE SAME PERIOD.

The stats definitely show Cam forces the ball to Benjamin when things aren't going well. But is this a symptom of other problems on offense? Poor offensive line play and/or lack of running game? The Panthers even managed to win a few games where Benjamin had a huge number of targets but only a couple catches.

[panther4life]

10 minutes ago, hepcat said:

The stats definitely show Cam forces the ball to Benjamin when things aren't going well. But is this a symptom of other problems on offense? Poor offensive line play and/or lack of running game? The Panthers even managed to win a few games where Benjamin had a huge number of targets but only a couple catches.

The stats in the op are interesting and I hope they are just coincidence.  A strong argument could be made that the surrounding talent around Benjamin in 14 and 16 was pretty bad, mainly the o-line and its ability to stay healthy. 

I remember in 2014  offseason I had a chance to meet Star and Gano on separate occasions via work. Both of them could not stop raving about how awesome Benjamin looked so far. 

 

 

 

[Snake]

It's not really looking good for KB and he is trending to bust unless he comes in this year and performs. With coming in over weight that looks to not be the case and we may not want to stick around with a lazy WR. The down side will be he probably will get his poo together after us and do real well.