The Lions are leaning on a 310-pound defensive end. For the first time in his career, Alim McNeill played more snaps on the edge of the defensive line than anywhere else up front in the Lions' win over the Giants last week.
After logging 17 snaps at defensive end in Detroit's loss to Philadelphia the week prior, McNeill was up to 24 snaps at his new position last Sunday. He's still spending most of his time across multiple spots in the trenches, and his deployment could normalize when the Lions get Marcus Davenport and Josh Paschal back from injuries, as soon as Thursday's game against the Packers.
But for now, the Lions like the flexibility that comes with playing McNeill on the outside, especially on early downs.
"It gets our best personnel on the field, is what it does, in certain packages," Dan Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Now you get Mac, you get Reader, you get Tyleik, you get Hutch certainly, always, and Barnes and Alex and Jack. That’s what it does a lot when you’re going to play some of these big base looks and that’s why, and then when we go sub he kicks down, as usual, to the 3-tech."
To Campbell's point, the Lions' snap leaders in the front seven against the Giants were Jack Campbell (82), Alex Anzalone (79), Aidan Hutchinson (77), McNeill (69), Derrick Barnes (66), DJ Reader (46) and Tyleik Williams (45), by a comfortable margin over everyone else. McNeill played the fourth most snaps on the edge of the defensive line, behind Hutchinson, Barnes and Al-Quadin Muhammad, who's almost exclusively a pass-rusher.
Of course, it was not a great day for Detroit's defense. The Lions surrendered season highs in yards (517), yards per play (6.7), passing yards (395) and yards per pass (10.7) and a whopping 20.1 yards per completion against an offense missing its starting quarterback, No. 1 receiver and No. 1 running back.
McNeill did help the Lions shut down the run, which is part of his appeal as a big end. The Giants averaged just 3.1 yards per carry, with Detroit going heavy up front. The trade-off is that the Lions struggled to get after Jamies Winston, who wasn't sacked until the final play of the game -- when McNeill brought pressure up the middle and Hutchinson tracked Winston down after rushing around the right edge.
Winston averaged 3.2 seconds from snap to throw against the Lions, one of the highest numbers in the NFL in Week 12, per PFF, after having just 2.5 seconds to throw the week prior against the Packers -- one of the lowest numbers in Week 11.
Getting Davenport back should change the look of Detroit's defense. He has the size and strength to both set an edge and press the pocket opposite Hutchinson, which should bounce McNeill back into his typical role on the interior. Campbell said he's "hopeful" that Davenport can return Thursday.
The oft-injured defensive end has been sidelined since injuring his shoulder in the Lions' Week 2 win over the Bears. Campbell said that Davenport "looked really good last week" in practice, and Davenport said Monday that he was close to playing against the Giants.
The challenge this week is gauging his status with the Lions only having walk-throughs Monday and Tuesday as they prepare for a short turnaround.
"And then it’s a matter of us saying, 'Alright, is he ready for this?' not being in a (true) practice setting this week, getting ready to go," Campbell said. "Now, he did last week, and that’s ultimately what it would come down to: how does he feel, does he feel like he can do this and he’s ready to go? Does he need one more week, get ready for Dallas? So we're still talking about all that, but I do like where he’s at, for sure.
"He’s come a long way, man. He’s put in a lot of work to get back — he always does."