A detailed look at the Detroit Lions’ personnel decisions and snap counts for their Week 2 game against the Buccaneers.
Let’s take a detailed look at the Detroit Lions ’ Week 2 snap counts against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers .
Offense
Quarterbacks
Jared Goff: 85 (100%)
Hendon Hooker: DNP
Goff stayed healthy the entire game despite taking 10 quarterback hits. The amount of overall snaps for the offense (85), goes to show you Detroit controlled the game for long spans of time, despite the loss.
Running backs
Jahmyr Gibbs: 53 (62%)
David Montgomery: 30 (35%)
Sione Vaki: 4 (5%) — 18 special teams snaps (69%)
Craig Reynolds: 3 (4%) — 18 (69%)
After a near-even split last week, the Lions’ game plan favored Gibbs this week, and that makes sense given the production levels. Montgomery couldn’t find much space, rushing for just 35 yards on 11 carries. Gibbs, on the other hand, had 84 yards on 11 rushes.
Tight ends
Sam LaPorta: 75 (88%)
Brock Wright: 29 (34%) — 9 (35%)
Parker Hesse: 9 (8%) — 12 (46%)
Despite receiving only three targets in the passing game, LaPorta saw an increase in playing time both in terms of overall snaps and percentage of snaps. Otherwise, this was a pretty normal split from the group.
Wide receivers
Amon-Ra St. Brown: 79 (93%)
Jameson Williams: 78 (92%)
Tim Patrick: 33 (39%)
Kalif Raymond: 31 (36%) — 10 (38%)
Tom Kennedy: 5 (6%) — 5 (19%)
Isaiah Williams: INACTIVE
Despite leaving twice due to injury, St. Brown still managed to play 93 percent of the offensive snaps. For the first time in his career, Jameson Williams eclipsed 90 percent of the snaps. His 78 offensive snaps were 26 more than his previous high… set last week against the Rams.
The bigger news here is that the Lions didn’t really ease Tim Patrick into the lineup. He got a full load of WR-X snaps, which should hopefully expedite his chemistry with Goff. Though Patrick was a practice squad elevation, this level of involvement seems to suggest it will only be a matter of time before he joins the 53-man roster.
It’s also interesting to see the Lions in 11 personnel (three wideouts) as much as they were in this game. That’s not typically their game, but it’s clear they thought they could attack the Bucs pass defense with Antoine Winfield Jr. out of the game.
Offensive line
Taylor Decker: 85 (100%)
Penei Sewell: 85 (100%) — 4 (15%)
Frank Ragnow: 85 (100%)
Kevin Zeitler: 85 (100%) — 4 (15%)
Graham Glasgow: 85 (100%) — 4 (15%)
Dan Skipper: 0 (0%) — 4 (15%)
Kayode Awosika: 0 (0%) — 4 (15%)
Michael Niese: 0 (0%) — 4 (15%)
Colby Sorsdal: INACTIVE
Giovanni Manu: INACTIVE
Despite his ankle injury, Penei Sewell managed to play the entire game at right tackle. I’m a bit surprised to see that he also played on special teams, as sometimes coaches take an injured player off of special teams to lighten their load.
Technically, Skipper, Awosika, and Niese all played in one offensive snap—the fake punt. But I felt that would be a disingenuous look at the snap counts to include it.
Defense
EDGE:
Aidan Hutchinson: 43 (90%)
Levi Onwuzurike: 36 (75%) — 3 (12%)
Josh Paschal: 13 (27%)
James Houston: 3 (6%)
Marcus Davenport: INACTIVE
Hutchinson played his typical 90 percent of snaps, and it resulted in a career day for him. His 4.5 sacks were outstanding, and Baker Mayfield was lucky to recover his forced fumble.
Replacing Davenport was a combination of Onwuzurike and Derrick Barnes. Interestingly, Josh Paschal’s playing time did not increase at all. James Houston was active, but just barely. One has to wonder with so small of a role if he was going to even be active if Ennis Rakestraw hadn’t suffered an injury in pregame warmups.
DT:
Alim McNeill: 35 (73%) — 3 (12%)
DJ Reader: 25 (52%)
Mekhi Wingo: 13 (27%) — 4 (15%)
Kyle Peko: 9 (19%) — 4 (15%)
Reader outsnapped Peko around 3-to-1 when it came to the nose tackle position, which is a pretty big accomplishment given it was his first game back from an injury.
What’s possibly more interesting here is that Detroit deployed Mekhi Wingo far more than last week, when the rookie only got just six snaps and only 8% of playing time. That allowed McNeill to get a little break, after playing 87% of the snaps last week.
Linebackers
Derrick Barnes: 45 (94%) — 14 (54%)
Alex Anzalone: 40 (83%)
Jack Campbell: 35 (73%) — 8 (31%)
Malcolm Rodriguez: 19 (40%) — 22 (85%)
Jalen Reeves-Maybin: 2 (4%) — 22 (85%)
Ben Niemann: 0 (0%) — 18 (69%)
Trevor Nowaske: INACTIVE
As mentioned above, Barnes was an even bigger part of the game plan with Davenport sidelined. Detroit had Barnes everywhere. Per PFF, 35 of his 45 snaps were at either EDGE position, he played off-ball on four snaps, and out wide as a “nickel” on six snaps.
Meanwhile, Alex Anzalone’s concussion took him out of the final quarter, which led to Campbell seeing an increase in his playing time after playing just over half the snaps. That said, Malcolm Rodriguez still played a significant amount of snaps, and it appears that role is here to stay.
Cornerbacks
Carlton Davis: 48 (100%)
Terrion Arnold: 44 (92%)
Amik Robertson: 18 (38%)
Kindle Vildor: 4 (8%) — 17 (65%)
Khalil Dorsey: 0 (0%) — 17 (65%)
Ennis Rakestraw: INACTIVE
The Lions played even less nickel this week than against the Rams, as they lean heavily into their base defense, as we saw in training camp.
Arnold missed four snaps with a finger injury before he returned to the game. He was replaced by veteran Kindle Vildor at that time. Ennis Rakestraw likely would have been Detroit’s choice to replace Arnold, but he, unfortunately, suffered a hamstring injury during warmups, just minutes before the Lions had to declare their inactives, according to Dan Campbell.
Safety
Brian Branch: 48 (100%) — 9 (35%)
Kerby Joseph: 48 (100%) — 9 (35%)
Brandon Joseph: 0 (0%) — 10 (38%)
Loren Strickland: 0 (0%) — 5 (19%)
Ifeatu Melifonwu: INACTIVE
It sure is nice seeing Brian Branch out there for every defensive snap for two weeks in a row. Outside of Hutchinson, no Lions defender is consistently making more plays.
Strickland gets his NFL debut, filling in some special teams snaps for Rakestraw.
Special teams
Jake Bates: 9 (35%)
Jack Fox: 7 (27%)
Hogan Hatten: 7 (27%)
Jake Bates: still perfect.