Snap Counts: Week 2 vs. New Orleans

Sep 19, 2023 at 08:43 AM

Darin Gantt

CHARLOTTE — View the snap counts and playtime percentage for the Panthers against the Saints in Week 2 of the regular season.

The Panthers appear to have settled into something resembling a wide receiver rotation. Jonathan Mingo played all but one snap (59 total or their 60), and Adam Thielen played most (52). DJ Chark Jr., still on perhaps a bit of a pitch count after a hamstring strain cost him Week 1, played 37, and Terrace Marshall Jr. just 22. Once everyone is fully healthy, the first three will likely be the go-to choices.
It was hard to get a true read on the run game since that part never got established, but the Miles Sanders (37)- Chuba Hubbard (22) split was roughly the same the week before against the Falcons. But a lot of Hubbard's snaps were in pass protection, as he got just two rushing attempts to Sanders' 14.
That one snap for backup quarterback Andy Dalton was telling, as he came in for Bryce Young for a short-yardage rep (it would have been two if not for a penalty). They need to find a reliable answer for those situations since taking your starting quarterback off the field is never ideal.

God bless Derrick Brown; he's going to play a lot of snaps this year. That's one thing when they're facing a low number like 52 snaps against Atlanta (when he played 50 of them), but when the team plays 77 snaps, and he has 72 of them, it's less than great. Brown's going to have a heavy workload this year as their top interior linemen.
With the injury to Shaq Thompson, the defense changed. The biggest difference was from nickel Jeremy Chinn, who played 38 snaps (73 percent) last week against Atlanta but just 27 (35 percent) against the Saints. Many of Chinn's sub-package plays were alongside Thompson as a quasi-linebacker.
The Panthers got more work out of spare pass-rusher Yetur Gross-Matos this week, with 42 quality snaps after he got just four last week. Gross-Matos was part of a solid pressure package against the Saints and should get more work with improved results.

One trickle-down effect of the Thompson injury (of many) will be that Kamu Grugier-Hill doesn't get to be as big a factor on special teams. He played 73 percent of the special teams snaps in Atlanta but just 52 percent against the Saints since they need him more on defense now. That's why special teams coaches have to know how to change tires on moving cars. Their cast of characters is always changing.
The Panthers activated linebacker Claudin Cherelus for the first time this week (18 snaps), and he and fellow linebacker Chandler Wooten (23) were fourth and second on the team in special teams snaps.