The Detroit Lions once again failed to come away with a win in a high-scoring game, and once again several members of their rookie class failed to make an impact.
Starting free safety Tracy Walker is out for the season with an Achilles injury, so the Lions made the decision to put third-round rookie Kerby Joseph into that role.
Joseph started at safety and was immediately picked on by Geno Smith and Seattle’s tight ends. On Seattle’s opening drive, Joseph failed to cover Colby Parkinson which led to him having to tackle the tight end out of bounds in the red zone. On the very next play, Joseph was targeted again and couldn’t prevent a touchdown by tight end Will Dissly.
For the rest of the first half, the rookie stayed relatively quiet. He didn’t make nearly as many mistakes in coverage, but he wasn’t making play on defense either. Joseph had four total tackles in the game, and all four were after he or another member of the secondary blew the coverage and had to rally to the receiver.
Malcolm Rodriguez had a spectacular day once again. The rookie started strong on special teams by forcing a fumble that led to Detroit’s first score of the game one play later. On that play, Tyler Lockett caught the punt from Jack Fox and only made it a few yards before Rodriguez wrapped him up and punched the ball out.
On defense, the sixth-round rookie was strong against the run. He finished the day with a team-high 11 tackles, one of which went for a loss of yardage.
Aidan Hutchinson has once again failed to live up to his draft status as he once again came away with very few pressures and no sacks. He bit hard on just about every play action that Seattle ran. It was a tough day for the former Michigan Wolverine.
Rookies Chase Lucas and James Mitchell were active for this game but were non-factors.
