The Detroit Lions fell to the Buffalo Bills in Week 2, falling behind early and running out of time to catch up in a high-scoring 41-31 game. On a short week, the Lions had a couple of injuries that cost them starting contributors, but make no mistake, they were clearly outmatched in this game. It’s still very early in the season, so they’ll have a chance to rebound and correct mistakes moving forward, but they’ll need to do some early-season self-scouting and address some obvious detriments.
Let’s look at the snap counts from this game and see what they mean for the depth chart hierarchy and what we can ascertain moving forward.
Quarterback
- Jared Goff: 65 (100%)
- Josh Dobbs: Did Not Play
Bills QB Josh Allen had an MVP-like performance in this game, so it’s easy to overlook that Goff played very well; if the Lions don’t make the mistakes they did in the first quarter, he showed the skills to lead this offense to points. Context matters, but Goff even outperformed Allen on the passing stat sheet, finishing the game with a 130.0 passer rating.
Running back
- Jahmyr Gibbs: 54 (83%)
- Sione Vaki: 11 (17%) — 18 special teams snaps (62%)
- Jacob Saylors: 0 (0%) — 18 (62%)
In Week 1, Gibbs played 57 snaps (74%) and touched the ball 34 times. Despite the heavy workload and short week of rest, he still managed a higher snap percentage in this game, though the Lions were probably smart to scale his touches back to 22.
Vaki continues to get RB2 reps but is only slowly involved in the offense beyond blocking. Of his 11 snaps, he was on the field for nine passing plays, caught one pass for 13 yards, run-blocked on one snap, and carried the ball for 7 yards on his remaining snap.
Wide receiver
- Jameson Williams: 63 (97%)
- Amon-Ra St. Brown: 62 (95%)
- Isaac TeSlaa: 49 (75%)
- Tay Martin: 0 (0%) — 18 (62%)
- Tom Kennedy: 0 (0%) — 9 (31%)
Despite playing nearly the entire game, St. Brown didn’t see his first target until 6:17 remaining in the first half, but he caught fire after that, finishing with nine catches for 142 yards and two scores. Williams, who had similar time on the field, caught two of his four targets for 33 yards, while TeSlaa continues to be used mainly as a blocker, but also made two catches (26 yards).
Martin and Kennedy continue to be used only on special teams, for now.
Tight end
- Sam LaPorta: 64 (98%)
- Brock Wright: 17 (26%) — 12 (41%)
- Tyler Conklin: 4 (6%) — 7 (24%)
- Jackson Meeks: 1 (2%) — 14 (48%)
LaPorta got a full workload, as expected, but the rest of the reserves saw their snaps scaled back from Week 1, as the Lions appeared to want to deploy more 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, and 3 WR sets).
Offensive line
- LT Penei Sewell: 65 (100%) — 5 (17%)
- LG Ben Bartch: 65 (100%) — 5 (17%)
- C Juice Scruggs: 65 (100%) — 5 (17%)
- RG Tate Ratledge: 65 (100%) — 5 (17%)
- RT Larry Borom: 65 (100%) — 5 (17%)
- G/T Miles Frazier: 0 (0%) — 5 (17%)
- OT Devoin Cochran: 0 (0%) — 5 (17%)
- C Seth McLaughlin: Did Not Play
- RT Blake Miller: INJURED (Ruled OUT)
- LG Christian Mahogany: INJURED (Ruled OUT)
With Miller and Mahogany out, the anticipated starting five played every offensive snap. Unfortunately, the replacements struggled, with early PFF stats showing Borom giving up seven pressures and Bartch giving up four—11 pressures from just two players on 46 passing plays is brutal.
Interior defensive line
- 3T Alim McNeill: 66 (89%) — 6 (21%)
- DT Tyleik Williams: 47 (64%) — 6 (21%)
- 3T Skyler Gill-Howard: 24 (32%) — 6 (21%)
- DL Levi Onwuzurike: 22 (30%)
- 3T Mekhi Wingo: DNP (INACTIVE)
McNeill continues to rep at a fever pitch rate, while a change in opponent (one that runs the ball more) results in Williams nearly doubling the snaps of the reserves. This is likely a truer representative look at what the interior defensive line’s snaps will look like on an average week.
EDGE
- EDGE Aidan Hutchinson: 63 (85%)
- Big End Tyler Lacy: 36 (49%)
- Rush End DJ Wonnum: 27 (36%) — 6 (21%)
- Rush End Derrick Moore: 17 (23)
- Rush End Eric O’Neill: 0 (0%) — 17 (59%)
- Big End Ahmed Hassanein: DNP (INACTIVE)
With the Lions running Base defense (four down linemen and three linebackers) on about half their snaps, we see a more balanced snap distribution between the Big End (Lacy) and Rush End (Wonnum and Moore) positions.
Linebacker
- MIKE Jack Campbell: 74 (100%) — 6 (21%)
- SAM Derrick Barnes: 74 (100%) — 8 (28%)
- WILL Devin White: 33 (45%)
- WILL Malcolm Rodriguez: 15 (20%) — 16 (55%)
- SAM Trevor Nowaske: 5 (7%) — 24 (83%)
- MIKE Joe Bachie: 0 (0%) — 14 (48%)
- MIKE Jimmy Rolder: DNP (INACTIVE)
After a great Week 1, Barnes earned more snaps in Week 2, while White and Rodriguez continue to split WILL reps depending on the situation. Nowaske was once again deployed situationally (blitzer, spy), but he saw very limited reps on defense.
Cornerback
- CB D.J. Reed: 71 (96%)
- CB Rock Ya-Sin: 70 (95%) — 1 (3%)
- NB/CB Roger McCreary: 18 (24%) — 9 (31%)
- CB Khalil Dorsey: 2 (3%) — 17 (59%)
- NB Keith Abney: DNP (INACTIVE)
- CB Ennis Rakestraw: DNP (INACTIVE)
Ya-Sin exited briefly after an inadvertent kick to a sensitive area and was replaced by Dorsey on the outside. It was a bit surprising to see Dorsey find the field over McCreary, but McCreary was deployed exclusively in the slot, splitting time with Christian Izien, as the defensive back reacclimates back from injury.
Safety
- S Chuck Clark: 64 (86%) — 6 (21%)
- S Thomas Harper: 33 (45%) — 11 (38%)
- S Avonte Maddox: 27 (36%) — INJURED
- NB/S Christian Izien: 26 (35%) — 11 (38%)
The Lions looked like they planned to continue their three-safety rotation—using Maddox and Clark in Base, then swapping Clark for Harper in subpackages—but Maddox’s injury forced the secondary to lean on Clark and Harper to close out the game.
Izien started in the slot, but his snaps were likely limited as he returns from injury. Moving forward, the Lions would probably prefer to increase Izien’s slot reps, but if Maddox ends up missing time, they may need Izien to fill in as the team’s third safety—and if they believe the veteran Clark needs limited reps, that could mean real playing time at safety, not just an emergency role.
Regardless, the secondary as a whole could be in line for a shakeup moving forward. Too often (in both games), the secondary found themselves in trail coverage in man concepts or playing too soft in zones. The defensive game plan seems to need tweaking, but the players aren’t living up to their pre-season expectations either.
Specialists
- K Jake Bates: 10 (34%)
- P Jack Fox: 9 (31%)
- LS Hogan Hatten: 9 (31%)
This group looked better than in Week 1, and Bates onside kick had potential, but the thing to watch here is if Hatten ends up on the injury report next week, as he was banged up making a tackle defending a return.
