ALLEN PARK -- Monday night has come and gone, and the Detroit Lions are not apologizing for how things turned out. Still, the game plan for Alim McNeill’s usage veered away from Dan Campbell’s initial plans.
Leading into the Week 7 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Campbell shared that ideally, McNeill would see around 20 to 25 snaps in his season debut.
While McNeill looked like his usual self and was causing havoc in practice, the Lions didn’t want to overload the fifth-year defender in his first game back.
As it turned out, McNeill not only played more than Campbell envisioned but also in situations the coach hadn’t originally planned for.
“Yeah, it was a little more than we wanted to give him for his first time out,” Campbell told reporters on Tuesday. “We were shooting for a little less than that just to be smart with him. But he was handling it well. It was going to be more of, you know, passing downs initially, and then he got worked in there on a couple of these base reps. But really, we ended up having him in some second-and-long situations.
“There were a lot of third downs in there, and we wanted him part of all that. So it got up there in the 40 range, but I thought he handled it well, you know, and the man got out of it good.”
McNeill finished the game playing 45 total snaps -- 37 in pass rush and eight against the run. He registered five pressures, one tackle, and one pass deflection. His presence on the Lions’ defensive front immediately helped the entire unit, particularly Aidan Hutchinson, against the Buccaneers’ offensive line.
However, despite his impact, Pro Football Focus gave McNeill a 59.8 overall grade -- the lowest of any Lions defender who played at least 10 snaps Monday night.
In fairness, it was McNeill’s first game action since tearing his ACL in a Week 15 loss to the Buffalo Bills last season. While the grade is the grade, the eye test showed that once McNeill shakes off the rust and gets his legs back under him, the Lions’ defensive line will be formidable again.
“He’s got the bye week, and he’ll come back now in a little bit better shape -- football shape,” Campbell said. “That’s the only way to duplicate it -- to actually go through it. So I think this will be good for him.”
After getting his first game action of the season under his belt, McNeill now heads into the bye week with a chance to recover and build more conditioning.
He’ll likely see his snap count return to normal levels when the Lions host the Vikings at Ford Field on Nov. 2.
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