Snap reactions from Seahawks-Lions: Devon Witherspoon plays every snap in debut

The snap count data is in from the Seattle Seahawks’ 37-31 win over the Detroit Lions, and we draw our attention once again to the rookie class.

Having missed all of preseason and Week 1 of the regular season with a hamstring injury, Devon Witherspoon was ready to go in his debut. He was one of only four Seahawks defensive players to play all 66 snaps on Sunday, alongside Bobby Wagner, Quandre Diggs, and Julian Love. Witherspoon had 5 tackles, a pass defensed on 4th down, and some ups and downs that you should expect from a debutant who didn’t really have a training camp.

Derick Hall had another 24 snaps on defense and 12 on special teams, while nose tackle Cameron Young saw his snap count increase to 17 in Mike Morris’ absence. With no Devin Bush, the Seahawks opted not to have anyone other than Brooks or Wagner at inside linebacker, so Drake Thomas and Jon Rhattigan were only special teams players.

On offense, Jaxon Smith-Njigba played 40 of 72 snaps, so it’s just about in line with the snap count rate he had in his debut against the Los Angeles Rams. He saw a little more involvement in the form of 5 catches for 34 yards, including an important 3rd down conversion on a scramble drill.

But I also want to draw attention to the fact that due to an Evan Brown knee tweak, we saw rookie center Olu Oluwatimi get his first NFL action. He played six snaps in Brown’s absence, and one of those snaps was the 1st quarter touchdown run by Kenneth Walker. It was all hat-on-hat blocking and Oluwatimi won his matchup.

The running back distribution for this week was 44 snaps for Walker, 19 for Zach Charbonnet, and 9 for DeeJay Dallas. Noah Fant, Colby Parkinson, and Will Dissly were all north of 30 snaps and were heavily involved in the offense.

You may notice that Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf each got a special teams snap. I’ve not reviewed the footage myself but I think they were out for the kick return when Detroit was down 31-28 in the 4th quarter, and they were a part of the hands team in case of an onside attempt.

Here’s the full snap count data:

Offense (72 snaps)

Phil Haynes - 72
Stone Forsythe - 72
Jake Curhan - 72
Damien Lewis - 72
Geno Smith - 72
Evan Brown - 66
Tyler Lockett - 61
DK Metcalf - 60
Kenneth Walker III - 44
Jaxon Smith-Njigba - 40
Will Dissly - 38
Colby Parkinson - 37
Noah Fant - 34
Zach Charbonnet - 19
Jake Bobo - 17
DeeJay Dallas - 9
Olu Oluwatimi - 6
Cody Thompson - 1

Defense (66 snaps)

Bobby Wagner - 66
Julian Love - 66
Quandre Diggs - 66
Devon Witherspoon - 66
Jordyn Brooks - 57
Tre Brown - 55
Uchenna Nwosu - 53
Dre’Mont Jones - 52
Coby Bryant - 49
Darrell Taylor - 46
Jarran Reed - 42
Mario Edwards - 28
Derick Hall - 24
Cameron Young - 17
Artie Burns - 15
Riq Woolen - 11
Tyreke Smith - 9
Myles Adams - 4

Special Teams (25 snaps)

Nick Bellore - 21
Mike Jackson Sr - 19
DeeJay Dallas - 16
Jon Rhattigan - 15
Drake Thomas - 15
Will Dissly - 14
Jerrick Reed II - 14
Colby Parkinson - 13
Jake Bobo - 13
Jason Myers - 13
Derick Hall - 12
Artie Burns - 11
Cody Thompson - 11
Chris Stoll - 10
Michael Dickson - 10
Zach Charbonnet - 9
Phil Haynes - 7
Stone Forsythe - 7
Damien Lewis - 7
Jake Curhan - 7
Raiqwon O’Neal - 7
Anthony Bradford - 7
Bobby Wagner - 6
Darrell Taylor - 5
Cameron Young - 5
Tyreke Smith - 5
Dre’Mont Jones - 4
Jarran Reed - 4
Kyu Blu Kelly - 3
Tre Brown - 2
Myles Adams - 2
Jordyn Brooks - 1
Riq Woolen - 1
Tyler Lockett - 1
DK Metcalf - 1