Snap Counts: You Wanted More Samuel, You Got Moore (Samuel)

With Devin Funchess out and Torrey Smith (13) clearly limited as he recovered from a Week 7 knee injury, it gave the Panthers the opportunity to take a look at some of their younger wide receiver options, with both DJ Moore (54) and Curtis Samuel (54) playing their career high in snaps – while Moore continued his strong rookie campaign with eight catches – on nine targets – for 91 yards, Samuel again scored a touchdown on limited snaps, his sixth of the season on only 24 touches; the second year wideout also drew a key pass interference penalty in the end zone that led to a one-yard touchdown.

Jarius Wright played only 27 snaps, mostly in the slot, where he recorded two catches for 25 yards – both came on first down.

Christian McCaffrey (59) continued not only his assault on the franchise record book as he became the first Panthers player in team history to eclipse 100 yards both through the air and on the ground with 237 total yards – again, the most in franchise history – he continued playing at a ridiculous pace. He currently leads the league in terms of playtime percentage from a running back standpoint; not coming off the field after a 59-yard run and then a 15-yarder to eventually score a touchdown on a drive that he accounted for all 75 yards on was particularly impressive – the most a running back has played since 2012 was 92.1%, which Matt Forte did in 2014.

McCaffrey is currently playing 96.7% of the snaps.

Damiere Byrd (1) reinjured the same arm he broke last season in New England, but made an impact on special teams (4) with 19 yards in the punt return game.

With Donte Jackson (1) exiting the game on the first drive, Captain Munnerlyn played (60) all but two of the defensive snaps, taking over the outside corner role when the team ran with their base or ‘big nickel’ package and sliding inside with Corn Elder (29) playing outside when the Panthers brought in a third corner; this was the most playing time of Elder’s career after he missed all of last season with a knee injury. His only previous extended playing time was in Week 2 against Atlanta.

While the defensive front was able to get pressure at times from effective and well-timed blitzing, the defensive line rotation was again different, with Mario Addison (45), Kawann Short (42) and Julius Peppers (32) taking the brunt of the snaps and the relief players like Wes Horton (30), Kyle Love (22) and Vernon Butler (21) spelling them. The team decided again to activate Marquis Haynes (9) for the second consecutive week – aside from Peppers and Addison, not one defensive lineman registered a quarterback hit or sack.

Rashaan Gaulden took three snaps when Eric Reid was shaken up for a few plays in the third quarter. Check out the full snap counts below:

Josh Klein

Editor-In-Chief at The Riot Report

Josh Klein is Editor-In-Chief of The Riot Report. His favorite Panther of all time is Chad Cota and he once AIM chatted with Kevin Greene. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshkleinrules.