Is Alim McNeill playing too many snaps? "I'm not gonna complain"

Alim McNeill had never played more than 69 snaps in a game. Then he played 83 in Week 1.

Then 66 more in Week 2.

Through two games, he's played by far the most snaps of any interior defensive lineman in the NFL. He's played a higher percentage of the Lions' defensive snaps than Aidan Hutchinson.

Of course you want your best players on the field as much as possible -- but 90 percent of the snaps!? For a defensive tackle? This couldn't have been the plan.

"100 percent it was the plan," McNeill said Thursday. "That was definitely the plan. That’s how we did it in camp. There weren’t any snaps off. I was taking every snap. So I knew I was doing that, 1,000 percent, especially coming back now that I’m healthy. I would’ve done it last year if I was good."

Week 1, to be fair, was skewed by overtime, and the fact that Levi Onwuzurike was inactive after the Lions had briefly shifted him to the practice squad in a cap-related move. Week 2 was a better picture of the Lions' current reality: McNeill played almost 20 more snaps than the next-closest interior defensive lineman, Tyleik Williams. The return of Onwuzurike meant a smaller share of the snaps for Skyler-Gill Howard, not McNeill.

"What happened the first game, there were only three of us inside. Levi wasn’t there, so we didn’t have a choice. If I wasn’t in, Sky was in, if Sky needed a break, I was going back in, if Leek needed a break, we were all cooked," McNeill said with a laugh. "So it was what it was."

McNeill will be the last to carp about this. He says he's good for it. He's a captain and he wants to play, especially after missing so much time in 2024 and 2025 to a torn ACL. But it's not sustainable, and the Lions aren't pretending otherwise. The NFL snap leader among interior defensive linemen last year was Pittsburgh's Cameron Heyward, who averaged about 48 per game and finished with 817.

McNeill, through two weeks, has averaged about 75 per game, putting him on pace for more than 1,250 on the season.

OK. Deep breaths. It's not going there. This is as much an overreaction through two games as the consternation over Jahmyr Gibbs' workload in Week 1. When McNeill says this was part of the plan, he means out of the gate. Gill-Howard will begin to take some snaps off McNeill's plate. Ideally so will Onwuzurike.

Asked this week if McNeill's snap count speaks to concerns about Detroit's depth on the D-line, Dan Campbell said, "Not necessarily. I mean, those first two games, the first one you go into overtime and then the second one's on a short week. And his backup right now is Sky, who's a young player who's ascending. The more he grows, the more he'll play, and not just normal downs."

It's similar to the situation on the edge, said Campbell, where rookies Derrick Moore and Eric O'Neill should slowly lighten the load for Hutchinson, whose snap rate is actually slightly down from last year, which is part of Detroit's plan.

"So that's where we're getting to and what we're working through," said Campbell. "No, ideally, we don't want them out there that much just to keep them as fresh as you can, but also use them, maximize what Mac and Hutch can do."

The Lions went younger and lighter on the interior of their defensive line this year, in a justified effort to juice up their pass rush. Their front four is indeed winning with more frequency through two games. But moving on from DJ Reader and Roy Lopez means that McNeill, at least for now, is in almost every defensive package for Detroit, from base looks on rushing downs to nickel looks on passing downs to heavy fronts in short yardage.

McNeill has always played a healthy dose of snaps for Detroit. But his heavier workloads typically landed in the range of 50 to 60 snaps.

"You get up there now in the 70, 80 range, it is what it is," he said, shrugging off concerns over fatigue. "I’m just gonna go out there and do what I need to do. I feel like I’m in good enough shape to be able to do it and last. I’m not really out there bent over tired."

To McNeill's point, his sack in Week 1 came in overtime on one of his last snaps of the day. He still had the juice to push back a double team by the guard and the center, then get off a block and take down Tyler Shough. He doesn't feel like the extra work is slowing him down over the course of a game, "because I was able to have an offseason this year, so I got the strength and stuff to be able to go in OT."

At this time last year, McNeill was still rehabbing. His body now is closer to where it was before his injury, leaner and more muscular.

"I’m not gonna complain and say I want snaps taken off," he said. "I’ll just let (the coaches) do it. I feel good."

Here's the thing, and McNeill acknowledges it. When he was playing at a Pro Bowl caliber level in 2023 and 2024, he was logging about 68 percent of Detroit's defensive snaps, or 44 per game. That's when he earned and signed his four-year, $97 million extension. His workload spiked last year to more than 80 percent of the defensive snaps, or about 57 per game (in the nine games for which he was healthy).

There are outliers in the trenches like Titans star Jeffery Simmons who can live comfortably in the neighborhood of 80 percent of the snaps. But 70 percent of the workload feels like the sweetspot for McNeill, as it is for most of the top defensive tackles in the game.

"I mean, yeah, 100 percent. The more rest you get, the better anybody would be," said McNeill.

Again, the Lions will get this in check. McNeill will likely break 800 snaps this season for the first time in his career if he stays healthy, but the Lions won't push him much further than that. (Will they?) The last defensive tackle to hit 1,000 snaps in a season was Aaron Donald in 2021. The Lions aren't chasing unicorns.

McNeill is a workhorse. He can handle more. The concern, which goes back to last season, is that the Lions are diminishing the return on their own investment by trying to stretch it too far. The defensive tackle they paid $24.25 million per year was performing at peak capacity while playing about 45 snaps per game. McNeill hasn't been quite as impactful with a heavier workload.

OK, more deep breaths. McNeill didn't feel like himself last year coming off his knee injury. There were times, according to defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, that McNeill couldn't even put his foot in the ground and plant. He was out there mostly out of duty to his teammates. That was the primary explanation for his down season.

And his performance has ticked back up this year, if not quite to the level that he was at a couple years ago. Not yet.

But Detroit's best defense features the game-wrecking version of Alim McNeill that emerged in 2023 and 2024. That man was a force, sturdy against the run and consistently disruptive against the pass. He was in the top-10 conversation at his position. And maybe it's within McNeill to get back there while shouldering more snaps.

McNeill and his coaches certainly know better than we do. But as the season evolves, it's something to watch.

70 percent feels ideal. 80 percent is pushing it. 90 percent is not part of the plan, at least not for much longer. It can't be. (Can it?)

"I feel good, though," said McNell. "I’m not gonna complain that I’m getting too many snaps. I don’t want to be that guy."