Lions snap counts: Colby Sorsdal, Brodric Martin break ground

Two Detroit Lions rookie crossed over big milestones. Let’s take a closer look at the Lions’ snap counts against the Raiders.

The Detroit Lions took it to the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night, and the snap counts from the game really highlight that. Detroit’s offense was on the field for 86 snaps, while the Raiders had just 46 offensive snaps.

Let’s take a closer look at how the Lions used their personnel on both sides of the ball.

Offense

Quarterbacks

Jared Goff: 86 (100%)
Teddy Bridgewater: N/A

Jared Goff got the victory formation snaps this week, tragically dropping his rushing yards to 13 on 18 carries.

Running backs

Jahmyr Gibbs: 60 (70%)
Craig Reynolds: 24 (28%) — 1 special teams snaps (4%)
Devine Ozigbo: 2 (2%) — 7 (28%)
(FB) Malcolm Rodriguez: 1 (1%) — 15 (60%)
David Montgomery: OUT

Gibbs was the workhorse back again on Monday with David Montgomery still out. Those snap counts likely would have been even higher had the game been close. Craig Reynolds took four of the final six carries of the game.

Tight ends

Sam LaPorta: 81 (94%)
Brock Wright: 46 (53%) — 11 (44%)
James Mitchell: 6 (7%) — 10 (40%)

The Lions played their tight ends at a higher rate this week, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering they ran the ball 43 times. 81 snaps is a ridiculous amount for rookie Sam LaPorta, but he’s become that integral to their game plan.

Wide receivers

Amon-Ra St. Brown: 79 (92%)
Josh Reynolds: 71 (83%)
Jameson Williams: 34 (40%)
Kalif Raymond: 21 (24%) — 5 (20%)
Antoine Green: 5 (6%) — 7 (28%)

Despite battling an illness, St. Brown played in nearly all 86 snaps this week.

“That’s not the best he’s felt,” coach Dan Campbell said. “That was not the best he’s felt but like a true warrior he just sucked it up and he went.”

While Jameson Williams’ snap counts remain fairly modest, it’s worth noting that the Lions trusted him a little more in both the red zone and third downs.

Interestingly, Antoine Green’s role dramatically dropped this week, suggesting that the Lions’ addition of Donovan Peoples-Jones via the trade deadline will likely impact him the most.

Offensive line

Taylor Decker: 86 (100%)
Graham Glasgow: 86 (100%) — 7 (28%)
Colby Sorsdal: 86 (100%) — 7 (28%)
Penei Sewell: 86 (100%) — 7 (28%)
Kayode Awosika: 61 (71%) — 4 (16%)
Dan Skipper: 25 (29%) — 7 (28%)
Halapoulivaati Vaitai: 0 (0%) — 3 (12%)
Frank Ragnow: DNP
Jonah Jackson: DNP

Colby Sorsdal made his first NFL start and played a RIDICULOUS amount of snaps, as the Lions offense dominated the day. And while it was a patchwork offensive line with Ragnow, Jackson, and Vaitai all unable to start, Campbell came away impressed with the performance, as Detroit racked up 222 rushing yards.

“That’s the combination—we just believed those guys can – there’s some things they’re capable of doing and we know Sorsdal can run off the football, he’s shown that,” Campbell said.

Awosika left the game due to cramps and Skipper took over. There should be no long-term concern there, as Awosika was prepared to go back in late if the team needed him, but Detroit was comfortably ahead and let Skipper play it out.

Defense

EDGE:

Aidan Hutchinson: 43 (93%) — 1 (4%)
John Cominsky: 27 (59%) — 3 (12%)
Josh Paschal: 22 (48%)
Julian Okwara: 18 (39%) — 1 (4%)
Charles Harris: 10 (22%) — 3 (12%)
Romeo Okwara: 5 (11%) — 3 (12%)

The Lions continue to mess around with their edge defender reps, as they try to find a combination that works to lighten the load off of Hutchinson. There’s likely no plan to take away from Hutchinson’s snaps, but Detroit needs someone to separate from the pack to draw more attention away from Hutch.

Josh Paschal/John Cominsky lead the way, but both are better pass rushers from the interior. Commish is getting about half of his work on the inside, while Paschal is mostly on the outside, but he failed to register a single pressure vs. the Raiders.

Harris was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch, but still only played 10 snaps.

Surprisingly, the player who has shown the most pass rushing promise on the edge is Julian Okwara, who played a season-high 18 snaps this week. He’s produced four pressures and two sacks in just 41 defensive snaps over the past three weeks.

DT:

Alim McNeill: 33 (72%) — 2 (8%)
Benito Jones: 24 (52%) — 9 (36%)
Brodric Martin: 11 (24%)
Isaiah Buggs: INACTIVE
Levi Onwuzurike: INACTIVE

The Lions sent Buggs back to the healthy inactive list in order to have third-round rookie Brodric Martin make his NFL debut. Martin played in a total of 11 snaps, including the first five plays of the Raiders’ lone scoring drive. It wasn’t a great debut for the rookie, as the Lions got moved around on that drive, and he was pulled when Vegas got into the red zone. Martin’s PFF score was the third-lowest among the Lions defense (49.6).

Linebackers

Alex Anzalone: 46 (100%) — 1 (4%)
Jack Campbell: 31 (67%) — 1 (4%)
Derrick Barnes: 17 (37%) — 11 (44%)
Malcolm Rodriguez: 0 (0%) — 15 (60%)
Jalen Reeves-Maybin: 0 (0%) — 17 (68%)
Anthony Pittman: 0 (0%) — 17 (68%)

A pretty drastic change here behind Alex Anzalone. The Lions pretty much pulled Jack Campbell from the edge position they had been trying him at, and instead made him the primary MIKE linebacker next to Anzalone. Just four of Campbell’s 31 snaps came on the ball.

That meant a pretty significant decline in Derrick Barnes’ playing time. Are we finally seeing a changing of the guard here after Campbell struggled on the edge?

Cornerbacks

Cam Sutton: 46 (100%) — 1 (4%)
Jerry Jacobs: 46 (100%) — 1 (4%)
Brian Branch: 46 (100%)
Khalil Dorsey: 0 (0%) — 17 (68%)
Chase Lucas: 0 (0%) —17 (68%)
Will Harris: 0 (0%) — 15 (68%)
Steven Gilmore: INACTIVE

Nice to see some stability here in the secondary for once. Interestingly, for the second time all season rookie Brian Branch played every snap in his game back from injury. Just goes to show how much of an important piece he is to stay in nickel the entire game.

Safety

Kerby Joseph: 46 (100%) — 10 (40%)
Tracy Walker: 35 (76%) — 8 (32%)
Ifeatu Melifonwu: 0 (0%) — 16 (64%)

The Lions continue to keep their safeties in on special teams.

Also, probably worth noting that Walker was sidelined for 11 snaps in this game, but not likely due to an injury. Simply put, the Lions trust Branch to play the other safety position in certain formations.

Special teams

Jack Fox: 15 (60%)
Scott Daly: 8 (32%)
Riley Patterson: 7 (28%)

Jack Fox continues to hold onto kickoff duties after Patterson had them for just a single game against the Buccaneers.