While the Panthers 9-3 win over the Buffalo Bills was certainly not the most efficient or aesthetically pleasing from an offensive standpoint, the Panthers continue to work out the kinks in a season that has struggled to add two new pieces and bring Cam Newton back to 100% health and accuracy. The loss of Greg Olsen to a broken foot will make a huge difference to an already struggling offense, and it will be interesting to see how the Panthers react to Olsen’s injury from a roster standpoint. Will they bring up a third tight end like Bucky Hodges or Alex Armah from the practice squad or sign a veteran? Might they be satisfied bringing Amini Silatolu in as their ersatz third tight end when they want to run a play with 13 (three tight end) personnel? Time will tell, but before we start thinking about the future, let’s take a look at some of the numbers from the Buffalo game.
On offense, once again, the offensive line plays every snap except for one when a Kalil ruins the line’s perfect attendance. While Tyler Larsen was a late substitution for Ryan Kalil at center, he played every snap. I’d imagine we’ll see Ed Dickson’s numbers increase to Olsen’s normal 100% as he takes his spot as the ‘next man up’, so it was no surprise to see his numbers increased on Sunday; a bit of a surprise to see Devin Funchess as the busiest wide receiver, he outsnapped Kelvin Benjamin by 14 snaps and was out there in one wide receiver sets; it will be interesting to see if that had to due with Benjamin getting banged up or was an output of the scheme the team ran on Sunday. Christian McCaffrey, after being on the field for 70% of offensive snaps last week, wasn’t quite as productive this week at 63%; the rookie still outsnapped running back partner Jonathan Stewart 43-25. Obviously, McCaffrey has more value on passing downs so will see more snaps, the touches were about even (Stewart – 15, McCaffrey – 12), so seeing more McCaffrey on the field than Stewart seems like it’s going to be a weekly occurrence. Curtis Samuel is still being worked in slowly with the least wide receiver snaps, expect that number (along with his touches) to continue to grow slowly as the season progresses. Amini Silatolu gets six snaps in a jumbo package, this appeared to be the replacement for the three tight end set once Olsen was hurt; rookie Taylor Moton gets three snaps in a ‘super jumbo’ package in short yardage.
The entire secondary plays every snap in addition to Kuechly and Davis for the second week in a row (yes, the cornerbacks missed one each last week if you want to pick nits), if these six players can stay healthy the entire season, this defense will be consistently hard to pass against. With Kyle Love and Vernon Butler healthier this week, Star’s snap percentage goes down, but that’s no surprise; defensive line coach Eric Washington wants to rotate the line as much as possible, hence Addison, Peppers, and Johnson only being on the field for between 50-70% of the plays. Shaq Thompson gets the same percentage (46%) of the snaps as last week, apparently the “give Thomas Davis less snaps so that Thompson gets more reps” plan hasn’t progressed since Steve Wilks talked about it in January. New safety Demetrius Cox picks up a lot of special teams reps, that’s one of the reasons the Panthers claimed him from waivers.
The below table is sortable, so please, play around with the numbers and draw your own conclusions. Have some questions or notice something interesting? Leave it in the comments!
| Offensive Snaps | Percentage | Defensive Snaps | Percentage | Special Teams Snaps | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T Turner | G | 68 | 100% | 3 | 14% | ||
| T Larsen | C | 68 | 100% | 3 | 14% | ||
| A Norwell | G | 68 | 100% | 3 | 14% | ||
| D Williams | T | 68 | 100% | 3 | 14% | ||
| C Newton | QB | 68 | 100% | ||||
| M Kalil | T | 67 | 99% | ||||
| D Funchess | WR | 57 | 84% | ||||
| E Dickson | TE | 55 | 81% | 5 | 23% | ||
| C McCaffrey | RB | 43 | 63% | 6 | 27% | ||
| K Benjamin | WR | 43 | 63% | ||||
| R Shepard | WR | 34 | 50% | 12 | 55% | ||
| J Stewart | RB | 25 | 37% | ||||
| G Olsen | TE | 25 | 37% | ||||
| D Byrd | WR | 23 | 34% | 7 | 32% | ||
| C Manhertz | TE | 14 | 21% | 5 | 23% | ||
| C Samuel | WR | 12 | 18% | 13 | 59% | ||
| A Silatolu | T | 6 | 9% | 3 | 14% | ||
| T Moton | T | 3 | 4% | 5 | 23% | ||
| F Whittaker | RB | 1 | 1% | 18 | 82% | ||
| J Bradberry | CB | 54 | 100% | 8 | 36% | ||
| D Worley | CB | 54 | 100% | 6 | 27% | ||
| K Coleman | FS | 54 | 100% | 2 | 9% | ||
| T Davis | LB | 54 | 100% | 2 | 9% | ||
| M Adams | SS | 54 | 100% | 1 | 5% | ||
| L Kuechly | LB | 54 | 100% | 1 | 5% | ||
| K Short | DT | 41 | 76% | 1 | 5% | ||
| M Addison | DE | 38 | 70% | 1 | 5% | ||
| J Peppers | DE | 32 | 59% | 4 | 18% | ||
| C Johnson | DE | 30 | 56% | ||||
| C Munnerlyn | CB | 29 | 54% | ||||
| S Thompson | LB | 25 | 46% | 8 | 36% | ||
| S Lotulelei | DT | 24 | 44% | 1 | 5% | ||
| K Love | DT | 20 | 37% | ||||
| W Horton | DE | 18 | 33% | ||||
| V Butler | DT | 13 | 24% | ||||
| C Jones | FS | 18 | 82% | ||||
| D Mayo | LB | 18 | 82% | ||||
| B Jacobs | LB | 18 | 82% | ||||
| J Norris | LB | 18 | 82% | ||||
| D Cox | SS | 15 | 68% | ||||
| J Jansen | LS | 9 | 41% | ||||
| M Palardy | P | 9 | 41% | ||||
| K Seymour | CB | 9 | 41% | ||||
| G Gano | K | 7 | 32% |
