The Detroit Lions leaned on their rookie class early and often last year—the first under head coach Dan Campbell. In fact, in terms of percentage of play, no NFL team played rookies more than the Lions last year. According to the Football Outsiders Almanac 2022, Lions rookies accounted for a total of 6,172 snaps—or 20.9 percent of the team’s overall playing time. The next closest team—the New York Jets—had 5,795 rookie snaps. No other team had more than 5,000.
There were several reasons the Lions utilized rookies so much. For one, injuries forced Detroit to rely heavily on their young players.