In October of 2024, Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill signed a four-year, $97 million contract that made him one of the highest-paid defensive tackles in football. He was at the top of his game, coming off an impressive 2023 season, and was still wreaking havoc early in 2024.
But just over a month after putting pen to paper, McNeill suffered a torn ACL. It cost him the final three games of the 2024 season, a playoff push, and the first seven games of 2025.
When he returned to the field, McNeill
didn’t look like himself. After averaging 3.2 pressure per game in 2024, he managed just 2.3 last season. In 10 games, he managed just 14 tackles, two tackles for loss, and a single sack. By his own admission, it wasn’t up to his standard.
The frustrating part for McNeill was that while he felt he was in the right mental spot, the body and mind were just not aligned like they needed to be.
“It’s just how the body works. It takes time for stuff to come back a little bit,” McNeill said on Friday. “Some stuff was just not there, no matter how hard I tried to do certain stuff, it just wasn’t there yet.”
This offseason, McNeill’s focus is the same as it was going into his breakout 2023 season. You may remember the crazy amount of work he put into cutting 13% body fat to grow as a pass rusher. That year, he put up a career-high 5.0 sacks and a 78.6 pass-rushing grade from PFF. The diet, the workouts, the sleep regimen, it’s all back after losing last offseason to rehab.
“Just to be that dynamic, explosive player that I know I can be,” McNeill said. “That’s what I’ve been working on this offseason, and I feel amazing. So I don’t have any doubts about that.”
“It’s a night and day difference between last year and now,” McNeill added.
As for last year, McNeill doesn’t want to think about it anymore. Instead, all he can think about is proving to everyone that he’s still the elite player that earned that contract extension two years ago.
“I don’t think about last year. So, yeah, 1000 percent (I want to prove myself),” McNeill said. “I don’t remember last season. I don’t want to think about last season. So, yeah, 1000 percent. I’ve been losing sleep over it.”
