NEW ORLEANS —A look inside the numbers from Sunday's 47-10 road loss against the Saints.

• Veteran right tackle Taylor Moton made his 100th consecutive start, extending his franchise record in that category. He also played all 59 offensive snaps, and he's played 6,566 snaps in a row without missing one going back to the start of the 2018 season.
• Raheem Blackshear handled most of the kickoff return duties. He returned eight times for 204 yards, averaging 25.5 yards per return with a long of 31. It's the first time since Week 10 of the 2023 season that Blackshear has averaged over 25 yards per return.
• Linebacker Shaq Thompson had a team and game leading 10 total tackles. It's the most the veteran has had in a game since Week 16 of the 2022 season, when he had 12. Thompson missed 15 games with injury in 2023.
• Outside linebacker Eku Leota had three tackles for loss. It's the first time in his career he's posted that stat. He also had the team's only sack, his first, along with the only quarterback hit.
• Rookie receiver Xavier Legette had four catches on seven targets for 35 yards in his debut.
• Kicker Eddy Piñeiro first got the Panthers on the board with a 43-yard field goal. It is the 28th time in his Panthers career that Piñeiro has made a field goal of 40-plus yards.

• The Panthers offense finished with 11 first downs, making it the third game in a row (going back to the 2023 season) in which the offense finished with 11 first downs or fewer.
• The offense finished with 58 total rushing yards. The Panthers finished with less than 60 yards on the ground four times last season.
• On defense, the Panthers gave up 379 total net yards to the Saints. It's the most yardage given up since Week 3 of the 2023 season, against the Seattle Seahawks (425 yards).

SNAP COUNTS

Take a look at the snap counts and playtime percentage for the Panthers in Week 1 of the regular season against the Saints.

• They're serious about mixing up the personnel groupings and formations this year. The top four wide receivers up for the game played close to the same number of snaps, with Adam Thielen (41) and Diontae Johnson (39) "starting" the game by being on the field for the first snap, but Xavier Legette (35) and Jonathan Mingo (33) close behind.
• Rookie tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders actually played more snaps than all the receivers, which figures considering their shortage at that position and the rotation at receiver.
• Head coach Dave Canales mentioned in his post-game interview some degree of injury concern with guard Damien Lewis, but he didn't miss a snap, as the entire offensive line was intact for every snap. Backup Brady Christensen got two snaps as an eligible receiver, adding some size to the lineup.

• Some things never change. Derrick Brown still plays a load of snaps for somebody his size. The star defensive lineman played 91 percent of the total snaps (60 of 66). That's no surprise after he played 89 percent on the season last year.
• Linebacker Shaq Thompson was out there for every snap, regardless of packages, and Josey Jewell only missed four snaps all day.
• The rotation at outside linebacker was significant, as DJ Johnson (34 snaps) and Eku Leota (30) split them fairly evenly, with newcomer Jamie Sheriff (17) getting a lot of action for a guy who has been here a little over a week. That figures to be the case as they look for long-term answers at the position opposite Jadeveon Clowney. They actually started the game with nickel personnel, with Jewell in the middle and Thompson down in a stance at the line of scrimmage.

- You can tell Lonnie Johnson, called up from the practice squad (standard elevation), is a big part of the plan, playing nearly every special teams snap (27 or 90 percent), as did safety Nick Scott (28 in addition to his 8 snaps of defense). Along with linebackers Jon Rhattigan and Claudin Cherelus, the core appears to be established, along with veteran Mike Boone and rookie Trevin Wallace (who got his only action on special teams).

- In a perfect world, kick returner Raheem Blackshear might not have to play as many snaps, but when there are nine kickoff returns and just two punts by the opponent, things are out of whack.