After his first practice in pads against Alim McNeill, Frank Ragnow told Dan Campbell the Lions got a good one. The rookie defensive tackle had won a few reps against the Pro Bowl center, with a blend of quickness and power. As Ragnow explains now, three years later, "When you get an interior guy who can do both, it is not fun."
"Alim, since he walked in the building, has been one of the most mature rookies I’ve ever been around," Ragnow said. "Just knew how to do it all, right away, understood the process of being a professional and working. I have so much respect for him."
These days, Ragnow isn't alone. In a season where the Lions need him more than ever, McNeill is turning into a terror in the trenches. You can decide where he ranks among the best players at his position. That he has entered the conversation is crucial for the Lions as they pursue a Super Bowl without Aidan Hutchinson. They lost a star on the edge of their defensive line, while another rises on the interior.
The Lions always knew McNeill would stuff the run. They also thought he had the athleticism to grow into a pretty good pass rusher. McNeill overhauled his diet entering last season, cut 13 percent body fat and then proved them right. But could the Lions have seen this? Since Week 4 of this season -- one game before Hutchinson went down -- McNeill is eighth in the NFL in quarterback pressures. He's tied for first among defensive tackles with All-Pro Chris Jones.
"You obviously saw that jump last year where he lost a bunch of weight and I think that’s definitely helped him as a pass rusher, but now he’s also fine-tuning," said Ragnow. "Like, he’s got one move, two moves, three moves, counter move, and he’s just reaping the rewards. And now guards, centers, really anybody, are seeing like, 'OK, he’s got some finesse, but at the end of the day, he can run right over me.' And that’s just a special player."
McNeill, 24, is wise to the NFL. While space-eating, gap-plugging tackles will always have a place on the field, "this is a pass-rushing league now," he said. "You have to get to the quarterback."
"I knew my career wouldn’t be as long if I’m just here playing the run -- and to me, that wasn’t as fun," he said. "Teams are throwing the ball and there’s elite receivers everywhere, so I just wanted to add that to my game at the NFL level to be able to help us win games, ultimately, and to better myself as a player."
McNeill had a career-high 34 QB pressures in 13 games last season, per Pro Football Focus. He's on pace for 57 this season. The sacks haven't quite caught up, but McNeill is making life difficult for quarterbacks on a weekly basis. After a slow start to the year, he said he "changed a little bit of my practice habits," specifically incorporating more handwork drills, "and things just came together little bit more and it’s allowed me to pass rush like I want to."
"I just started seeing things better," he said. "I was getting off the ball, and feeling things out a little bit better."
For McNeill, "film is the No. 1 key." He constantly watches tape of the best interior pass rushers in the NFL, adding to his repertoire by studying the likes of Christian Wilkins, Jeffery Simmons and the recently-retired Fletcher Cox. McNeill points to a move he deployed on Cowboys All-Pro guard Zach Martin last month that he calls a "wipe-chop type of thing" where he opened Martin's hands in a windshield-wiping motion and then chopped them down to throw him off balance. McNeill got home for the sack.
"Other than that, I just watched a lot of guys work power-to-inside and power-to-outside moves, and that’s the No. 1 move. That’s what wins, is power, and being able to get through somebody. There’s nothing faster than that, other than maybe a clean swipe, but there’s only so many times you’re gonna get that inside. You get a lot of checks and quick throws, so you gotta get into somebody quick. When you can bull somebody back and work inside where the quarterback can’t step up, good things happen," said McNeill.
Playing alongside DJ Reader has helped. In short, you can't double-team both. McNeill said in training camp that he envisioned "destruction" once they took the field together. While "we don’t feel like we’re truly destroying stuff yet," he said Thursday, "we're getting there, and working every day to get that feeling." Violence is central to Detroit's defense up front. McNeill and Reader both provide it.
At 315 pounds, McNeill is lean compared to Reader -- and compared to his former self. He cut red meat, candy and chips from his diet, without much compromise. (Doritos, he once said, were an especially hard sacrifice.) But now and then, McNeill allows himself a cheat day. On Victory Mondays, he hits Culver's.
"When I got up here it was the first time I've ever seen it," said McNeill, a North Carolina native. "I just get the double burger with the fries and the cheese curds. I gotta make sure I get the cheese curds."
Would he indulge after a loss?
"Nah, I don’t. It has to be a win. Every time we lose, I can’t even eat, for real. Only after a win. It tastes better," he grinned.
Victory Mondays have become routine for the Lions, leaders in the NFC at 7-1 entering Sunday's clash with the Texans. Their offense gets most of the shine, but don't discount the fifth-ranked scoring defense in the NFL. The Lions have withstood three major losses to their front seven in Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport and Derrick Barnes partly because McNeill and others have picked up the slack.
Jones is the headliner of the league's elite defensive tackles, a group that includes stars like Wilkins, Simmons, Dexter Lawrence and Quinnen Williams. Whether McNeill has joined their company isn't for him to say, though his $97 million extension speaks pretty loudly. He acknowledged that "growing up, that’s always what a kid wanted, was to see your name mentioned with guys like that."
"But that’s not really the goal," he said. I’m trying to win the Super Bowl. Job’s not finished."