Perry Fewell told us this week not to expect wholesale lineup or personnel changes and save for Greg Dortch (11 ST snaps) being activated from the practice squad and returning punts and kicks – at least until a fumble and almost-fumble on consecutive returns drove DeAndrew White (4 offensive, 14 ST) back into the kick return slot – there weren’t many. While Reggie Bonnafon took the second carry of the game, it was one of only two snaps he saw – Christian McCaffrey played 70 of a possible 71 snaps, remaining in the game even with the Panthers down by 27 late in the fourth quarter.
“I would say that as competitors, those guys don’t want to leave the field,” said Fewell after the game about leaving starters like McCaffrey in during a futile effort in a blowout loss. “That decision really comes from us as athletes, as competitors, that we’re going to fight until the very end. So that’s what factors into that decision. As far as the younger guys playing and et cetera, we evaluate those guys every day in practice. We have a good idea of what they will bring to us, and then obviously if we felt like that in the situation that we wanted to see that, then we would definitely make that decision.
“As a competitor, Christian McCaffrey wanted to be on the field.”
With Greg Olsen still in the concussion protocol, Ian Thomas (61) played the majority of the snaps at tight end.
On the defensive side of the ball, Brian Burns (34) saw 47% of the snaps, his second-highest percentage since Week 4, but Mario Addison (50) and Bruce Irvin (55) still led the DE/OLB group in terms of snaps, despite Addison suffering a hand injury – Marquis Haynes (11) hurt his leg during the second half on special teams and left the locker room on crutches and in a large knee brace. Ross Cockrell (40) played over 50% of the snaps out of the nickel corner spot and had three tackles and two passes defensed.
Luke Kuechly and Eric Reid shared the team lead in tackles with 11 on the day and both played 100% of the snaps. Vernon Butler (52) had the only sack of the game for the Panthers in addition to two TFLs as he led the interior defensive lineman group in playtime percentage.
Check out the full snap counts here:
