For Reference - Panthers 2015 Roster: Week by Week & Snap Counts (updated with "snaps lost" - see p 2)

[KB_fan]

In thinking about the 2016 Panthers roster, I found it helpful to go back and review the Panthers 2015 roster. 

It's helpful in order:

• to have an idea of how many snap counts at which positions need to be replaced
• to be reminded of which players played big roles on Special Teams
• to have perspective regarding the roster distribution by position over the course of the season.  (E.G. we may want 6 WRs to make the roster in 2016, but realizing that, on average, only 4 WRs were active on game day throughout the 2015 season puts that in perspective.  It may not be realistic to expect 6 WRs to make the team.)

Below I'm copying screen shots of some tables I've worked on showing what the roster looked like week to week and which players were active for each game.

Over the weekend I hope to do a bit more work to come up with an analysis of "snaps needing to be replaced" given the roster turnover.  When I've completed that, I'll probably attach my spreadsheet in this thread in case others find it helpful.

Notes:

I've generally pulled data on which players were inactive from either BBR or the weekly gamebooks. The inactive lists don't always clearly designate who was out due to injury vs. who was a healthy scratch.  I've tried to distinguish between the two based on my memory and some of the archived injury reports.  I'd welcome any corrections if I've gotten something wrong.

Snap counts are from Pro Football Reference.

[KB_fan]

Let me start with an overview of position groups for the season as a whole.  Below are tables that show the numbers of players by position for all 19 games the panthers played in 2015:

First the breakdown 53 man roster:

 

And here's the number of players by position who were active on game days:

[KB_fan]

Here's a closer look at the Defensive Roster for the Entire Season, grouped by position.

 

• Y indicates a player was active on game day (note: does not necessarily mean they played in the game)
• The gray X means a player was not on the team in a given week.
• I and INJ designate players who were inactive in a given week (I = healthy scratch / INJ = inactive due to injury)
• IR designates players on Injured Reserve
• PS designates players on the practice squad.

There were a total of 63 players who were on our 53 man roster at some point this season, however 4 of them never actually played in any game (Nate Chandler, David Foucault, Lou Young and emergency long-snapper Danny Aiken who was on the roster for a few days when it was feared JJ Jansen would be unable to play in the Dallas game).

[KB_fan]

Here's that same breakdown for the Offense:

[KB_fan]

and here... for the record, the breakdown for Special Teams.  Pretty boring except for the emergency signing of Danny Aiken during Thanksgiving week when JJ Jansen was battling an illness.

 

[KB_fan]

Now the snap counts for each player.  Defense first.   (Data is from pro football reference.)

Within the next few days I'll add updated tables with snap %, and also the number / % of snaps that need to be "replaced" due to roster turnover

[KB_fan]

Here's the snap data for the offense:

[KB_fan]

And the snap data for Specialists:

[KB_fan]

Finally for today, a look at how the number of players by position evolved week by week - both in terms of the roster as a whole, and the players active on game days:

 

That's a lot of numbers.  Let me break that down by offense & defense below.

[the butch]

looking at the data, Bene averaged 60 snaps on defense per game, and Josh averaged 65.  The coaches believe in Bene to hold down his side of the field.  It's going to be on the other corners to compete and lockdown their side.

[KB_fan]

Here's what the roster looked like week by week for each position:

 

And here's how that translated into the list of 46 players who were active on game day:

 

It's interesting to focus on the Olines and Dlines.   We were very fortunate with few Oline injuries - and especially hardly any weeks where multiple Oline players were injured simultaneously.  We did have one week (week 4 at Tampa) where we had to call up David Foucault as emergency backup at tackle, but generally we were able to get by with 8 active Oline players each week, due to the flexibility of players who could backup multiple positions.

For the Dline, the mix fluctuated a bit between numbers of DEs and DTs depending on injury, but we also kept 8 active on game day except when we played Indy, when due to injuries, we had only 7 players active on the Dline.  Games 6 - 9  (weeks 7 - 10) against Philly, Indy, Green Bay & Tennessee were particularly tough with only 3 DTs.  Thinking about several of the blown leads in those games may help reinforce why we picked Vernon Butler in the draft.   Tired DTs hurt our defense!

[KB_fan]

Here's a closer look at the Oline throughout the season:

[KB_fan]

Here's the Dline week by week:

[Bartin]

1 hour ago, KB_fan said:

Games 6 - 9  (weeks 7 - 10) against Philly, Indy, Green Bay & Tennessee were particularly tough with only 3 DTs.  Thinking about several of the blown leads in those games may help reinforce why we picked Vernon Butler in the draft.   Tired DTs hurt our defense!

Thing is with that situation, drafting a DT doesn't really solve that issue at all so I can't imagine it was a motivation for the draft pick. At least I hope it wasn't because logically it would be pretty dumb. We are still likely to carry 4 DTs on the 53 man roster so if one of those 4 pulls a hamstring or sprains an ankle and has to miss a few weeks then we are still at 3 DT's. You have to cut someone and sign a replacement which Dave chose not to do last year for what I'm assuming is a fear of having a young guy he highly covets be poached by another team. Wegher was the most obvious candidate because as the 4th RB he really didn't serve any purpose on the 53 man roster at the time with all the RBs healthy. Waiving Wegher with the goal of having him on the PS for a few weeks then signing a DT off the street(bring Colin Cole back for a few games) to share the load a bit was the solution to that problem, but I imagine Gettleman didn't want to risk losing him or someone else like Norwood who he traded for or Marlowe who he is also high on.

We could carry 5 DTs this year, but that would be at the expense of another position(DE or CB) and that's something Gettleman has only ever done while someone was injured. For example, while Star was nursing a foot injury at the beginning of last year. He chose not to sign a 5th while Dwan was out with the high ankle sprain so we were left with 3 in the rotation.