CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- While walking his dog, Devin Funchess became the top dog -- at least in the Carolina Panthers' wide receiver room -- at 3:57 p.m. on Tuesday.
That's when the Panthers finalized the deal that sent No. 1 wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin to Buffalo in exchange for a third- and seventh-round pick in 2018, beating the NFL trade deadline by three minutes.
Funchess would have known this sooner than he actually did had he not ignored the constant buzzing on his phone immediately after the trade was revealed.
"The right people weren't calling me, so I knew nobody died up in Michigan," Funchess, who grew up in the Detroit area, said on Thursday.