Carolina Panthers Week 1 Snap Count Observations
The first week of the Frank Reich era in Carolina is in the books as the Panthers fell to the Atlanta Falcons, 24-10. No one really had a good idea as to what the Panthers would look like on either side of the ball or who would play considering they didn't reveal much in preseason play.
Although things will change as the season grows older, we do at least have something to go off of after game one. Below are the snap counts from Week 1 provided by the Panthers, along with some of my analysis.
Panthers' offense
Carolina ran a fair amount of 12 personnel in this game which is not a huge surprise with receiver DJ Chark out and considering running the ball is the strength of this unit. Tremble saw 18 snaps while Ian Thomas logged 15.
Laviska Shenault saw 25 offensive snaps, most of which came in the first half. It looked like he was going to be heavily utilized in the game but that fizzled out as the game went along. I feel like once Chark returns, that'll open up more opportunities for Shenault to get involved.
No Raheem Blackshear was a little bit of a surprise. He did appear on nine special teams snaps, but I figured he would get a couple of carries in this one. That may have been the gameplan going in but with Chuba Hubbard having arguably the best game of his career, it's hard to work in a third back.
Panthers' defense
I knew Jeremy Chinn wasn't on the field that much, but I can't believe he only saw 38 snaps. That's a rather low number against a team that runs the ball heavily and utilizes the play-action pass game.
Yetur Gross-Matos appeared on four snaps while Amaré Barno played strictly special teams. Rookie DJ Johnson didn't see the field at all, so that should be all you need to know about the overall confidence in that outside linebacker group (as of now).
Frankie Luvu, Shaq Thompson, and Vonn Bell never came off the field. That may be the case in many of the games this season for Carolina due to depth and just the overall importance those three have of being on the field.
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