The end of Glover Quin’s time in Detroit is likely coming sooner rather than later. That much has been evident all season long. But Sunday offered one of the first examples of where the Lions prioritized youth over the savvy veteran presence.

The Lions beat the Cardinals 17-3 in a grind-it-out defensive affair Sunday, and they did so by splitting their free safety reps. Quandre Diggs played all 70 snaps at the strong position, but Quin and third-round rookie Tracy Walker split the plays at free exactly evenly: 43 snaps for Quin, 43 snaps for Walker.

Quin’s 61-percent usage rate was his second-lowest of the past three seasons, only behind the game in New Orleans last season when he exited with a brain injury.

It worked out, of course, as Josh Rosen needed 41 attempts to reach 240 yards and never found the end zone. The Cardinals have one of the worst passing games in the NFL, particularly down the field, and the Lions handled them all game, save for a couple leaky drives in the fourth quarter.

But they did it with a mix of Quin’s leadership on the back end and Walker’s more springy play in the open field. Sunday represented a season high in snaps for Walker, who came to the Lions as a developmental player out of Louisiana-Lafayette. It’s taken him time to learn the coverages and the different calls a safety has to make to the secondary in Matt Patricia’s hybrid defense. Part of that process has been learning behind Quin, who is new to the scheme as well but has built a reputation for how he studies and manipulates opponents over his 10 years in the league.

In the 13th game of the year, the rookie pulled even with the veteran. The Lions got the win, and it keeps their playoff hopes on life support with three games to go. Those are likely the final three games for Quin in a Lions uniform and perhaps any NFL uniform. Sunday was his sixth and possibly final matchup with Larry Fitzgerald, the legend whose autographed photo has lined Quin’s locker all season long.

The changing of the guard might be finally underway.

Here are some other observations from how the snap counts shook out:

-- Another rookie who saw a season high in playing time was Tyrell Crosby. The fifth-round pick out of Oregon played 35 snaps at right tackle in place of Rick Wagner, who exited with a brain injury. He’d only played 20 snaps total coming into the game and many as an extra lineman rather than as one of the five. It wasn’t a great day for the Lions offensively, but they did put the game away on the ground with Zach Zenner down the stretch, which played to Crosby’s strength. With Wagner now in concussion protocol, Crosby could get a chance for his first career start next week at Buffalo.

-- Speaking of Zenner, he pulled nearly even with LeGarrette Blount in snaps, trailing 19 to 16. The Lions went heavy with Theo Riddick in this one, playing him 25 snaps, likely because of his pass protection. It became a bigger necessity after Wagner’s exit and with all the hits Matthew Stafford has taken in recent weeks. But Zenner certainly made the most of his time, taking 12 carries for 54 yards and the game’s only offensive touchdown. He should see more snaps than Blount going forward, but given Patricia’s affinity for Blount, that still seems unlikely.

-- Teez Tabor was a healthy scratch yet again, as the Lions played every other cornerback as much as they needed to. Mike Ford saw 69 snaps, DeShawn Shead had 30 and even newly signed Marcus Cooper received 13. As the season wears on and the games matter less, the Lions will have to decide whether they want to see more out of Tabor or not. If the answer is no, there’s not a whole lot of reason to keep him on the roster when they are playing anyone and everyone else.

-- Levine Toilolo was again the Lions' primary tight end, even though Michael Roberts was back in the fold. Toilolo played 80 percent of the game after playing 75 percent last week. He wasn’t nearly as effective, though, with just two catches for 26 yards. The Cardinals likely keyed in on him after he surprised the Rams, and this is what happens to backups over time. The problem for the Lions is all of their tight ends are backup-material at this point. (By the way, Eric Ebron scored his 12th touchdown for the Colts on Sunday.)

Here’s the full breakdown of snaps:

OFFENSE

C Graham Glasgow 60 (100 percent)

OG Kenny Wiggins 60 (100 percent)

OT Taylor Decker 60 (100 percent)

QB Matthew Stafford 60 (100 percent)

OG Frank Ragnow 59 (98 percent)

WR Kenny Golladay 50 (83 percent)

TE Levine Toilolo 48 (80 percent)

WR Andy Jones 37 (62 percent)

OT Tyrell Crosby 35 (58 percent)

WR TJ Jones 32 (53 percent)

OT Rick Wagner 29 (48 percent)

WR Bruce Ellington 27 (45 percent)

RB Theo Riddick 25 (42 percent)

TE Luke Willson 21 (35 percent)

RB LeGarrette Blount 19 (32 percent)

RB Zach Zenner 16 (27 percent)

OG Joe Dahl 9 (15 percent)

TE Michael Roberts 9 (15 percent)

FB Nick Bellore 4 (7 percent)

DEFENSE

CB Nevin Lawson 70 (100 percent)

LB Jarrad Davis 70 (100 percent)

SS Quandre Diggs 70 (100 percent)

CB Darius Slay 67 (96 percent)

DE Romeo Okwara 60 (86 percent)

DT A’Shawn Robinson 49 (70 percent)

CB Mike Ford 48 (69 percent)

FS Tracy Walker 43 (61 percent)

FS Glover Quin 43 (61 percent)

DT Ricky Jean Francois 41 (59 percent)

LB Christian Jones 40 (57 percent)

LB Eli Harold 38 (54 percent)

DT Damon Harrison 36 (51 percent)

CB DeShawn Shead 30 (43 percent)

DE Eric Lee 25 (36 percent)

CB Marcus Cooper 13 (19 percent)

LB Kelvin Sheppard 11 (16 percent)

DE Da’Shawn Hand 7 (10 percent)

DE Ezekiel Ansah 5 (7 percent)

SS Tavon Wilson 4 (6 percent)

SPECIAL TEAMS

Miles Killebrew 19 (79 percent)

Zach Zenner 17 (71 percent)

DeShawn Shead 17 (71 percent)

Kelvin Sheppard 15 (62 percent)

Tracy Walker 15 (62 percent)

Tavon Wilson 14 (58 percent)

Eli Harold 13 (54 percent)

Andy Jones 12 (50 percent)

Don Muhlbach 10 (42 percent)

Sam Martin 10 (42 percent)

Nick Grigsby 9 (38 percent)

Mike Ford 9 (38 percent)

Charles Washington 8 (33 percent)

Matt Prater 7 (29 percent)

Christian Jones 7 (29 percent)

Nevin Lawson 5 (21 percent)

Luke Willson 5 (21 percent)

Glover Quin 5 (21 percent)

Nick Bellore 5 (21 percent)

Romeo Okwara 5 (21 percent)

Marcus Cooper 5 (21 percent)

Levine Toilolo 4 (17 percent)

A’Shawn Robinson 4 (17 percent)

Jarrad Davis 4 (17 percent)

Graham Glasgow 3 (12 percent)

Kenny Wiggins 3 (12 percent)

Frank Ragnow 3 (12 percent)

Ricky Jean Francois 3 (12 percent)

Tyrell Crosby 3 (12 percent)

Bruce Ellington 3 (12 percent)

Damon Harrison 3 (12 percent)

Joe Dahl 3 (12 percent)

TJ Jones 3 (12 percent)

Quandre Diggs 3 (12 percent)

Eric Lee 3 (12 percent)

Darius Slay 2 (8 percent)

Taylor Decker 2 (8 percent)

Rick Wagner 1 (4 percent)

Da’Shawn Hand 1 (4 percent)

Ezekiel Ansah 1 (4 percent)