Panthers’ unheralded receivers still thriving as Super Bowl 50 awaits

Doubt has been a consistent theme for the Carolina Panthers throughout their run to a 15-1 regular-season record and now an appearance in Super Bowl 50.

Doubt from the outside when they got off to a strong start. Lingering doubt nationally when they were the last remaining undefeated team in the NFL. Still more questions as to whether they were truly ready for a deep playoff push.

That has been the perception at least, and perhaps no group within the team has more embodied that than the Panthers’ receiving corps after losing top target Kelvin Benjamin to a torn ACL in the preseason.

And to the critics, yes, they were listening.

“We’ve been getting doubted the whole year. Every time you hear something about the Panthers’ wide receiving corps [it’s], ‘Is Cam going to throw a touchdown to himself?’ Guys nine and 10 years in and they’re nothing,” veteran receiver Ted Ginn Jr. said Wednesday. “But at the end of the day we’re sitting here at the Super Bowl enjoying our time collectively together as one.”

Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is the likely favorite to claim NFL MVP honors after a career year in which he passed for 3,837 yards, rushed for 636 and accounted for 45 combined touchdowns. If there is another nationally recognized star on the offense it’s tight end Greg Olsen, who led the team in the regular-season with 77 catches for 1,104 yards and scored seven touchdowns. And Carolina’s multifaceted, physical running game in general has gotten plenty of kudos this week.

All the while, the team’s band of unsung pass catchers has been happy to go along for the ride regardless of who was noticing.

Ginn, the well-traveled nine-year NFL veteran, has bounced around between four teams, returning this season for his second stint in Carolina. He finished the regular season with 44 catches for 739 yards and 10 touchdowns while averaging 16.8 yards per reception. The catches and yards are his most since his second year in the league in 2008 while the yards-per-catch are a career best and the touchdowns are double his previous season-high.

Jerricho Cotchery, in his 12th year in the league and second with Carolina, caught 39 passes for 485 yards and three scores.

Meanwhile, rookie Devin Funchess (31 catches for 473 yards and five scores) and second-year receiver Corey “Philly” Brown (31-447-4) have chipped in as well for a maligned group that did enough to help the Panthers lead the NFL in scoring at 31.2 points per game this year. Brown had four catches for 113 yards and a 86-yard touchdown in Carolina’s 49-15 win over the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL Championship Game.

“We knew it was going to happen,” Brown said of the commentary that followed after Benjamin’s injury. “But we don’t care what people have to say about us. We don’t listen to none of that. We know that at the end of the day we’ve got a job to do. If we were sitting here worried about what people had to say about us we wouldn’t be able to do our job at the level we’ve been doing it at.”

Said Cotchery: “We hear those things. The guys know that’s not the fire-starter. Our motivation this year has been to get to this point, do what we need to do as a receiving corps to get to this point here in the Super Bowl. That’s been the main motivation for us.”

The most compelling story of the bunch, though, has been Ginn.

Since leaving the Miami Dolphins after the 2009 season, he had put up only one year of productive receiving stats – catching 36 passes for 556 yards and five touchdowns with Carolina in 2013 – while bouncing around between the San Francisco 49ers, the Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals.

Last year in Arizona he managed just 14 catches for 190 yards and no offensive touchdowns in 16 games while serving more as a return specialist (including a 71-yard punt return touchdown).

He’s been rejuvenated in his return to the Panthers, though, ranking 10th in the league in both receiving touchdowns and yards per catch.

“I’ve enjoyed my nine years in the NFL. I’ve had great times, I’ve been on great teams, I’ve enjoyed it with great men and great coaches,” Ginn said. “I would never take nothing away from how this thing has went because at the end of the day I’m still here, I’m still fighting and I’m still playing. ... It was a point where I knew I had shots, and I think this year was my shot and I just took off with it.”

This marks the second Super Bowl appearance for Ginn, who came up on the losing end with the 49ers against the Baltimore Ravens three years ago. He had a nice 32-yard punt return and a 31-yard kickoff return in that game, but no catches.

He figures to be a more significant component Sunday when the Panthers take on the Broncos, and he acknowledged that while there was a collective confidence among the team’s receivers entering the season, he’s no doubt found some validation in his own way this year.

“We knew what we had in the room. We knew who we were or who we are. We still continue to go out and showcase that. We are somebody and just don’t overlook it,” Ginn said. “... It gave me belief. It gave me hope. It showed that I was a fighter. It showed that no matter what you go through you can still stand at the end of the line, walk yourself to the front and still do what you need to do.”

The Panthers have walked themselves to the front of the line this season despite whatever limitations were perceived in the preseason.

There may not be a Demaryius Thomas on this roster – in fact none of the Carolina wideouts ranked higher than 49th in the league in receiving yards – but well, it’s been good enough.

And it was never about proving critics wrong anyway – it was about this right here.

“We’re not playing for anybody who told us that we’re not good or anything like that. We [couldn’t] care less what they have to say” Brown said. “At the end of the day, we’re right where we wanted to be at the end of the year. We’re in the Super Bowl with all the sub-par receivers that we have or whatever we have. We’re one of the last two teams standing.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Panthers’ unheralded receivers still thriving as Super Bowl 50 awaits."