Alim McNeill walked out of the Detroit Lions’ locker room Friday with three footballs in his hand — painted game balls he received for his play in wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers and Las Vegas Raiders.
“I think I’ve got a couple more (coming), too,” McNeill said.
The way he has played this season, it figures.
A third-round pick out of North Carolina State in 2021, McNeill is second on the team with four sacks and has 16 tackles and one forced fumble through eight games. He has been a force in the Lions’ 6-2 start, and he’s playing the best football of his career, even if he’d rather not admit it.
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“I really don’t feel like I’ve done enough, if we’re talking individually,” McNeill said. “I always try to put my best ability and put my best work out there on the field. But me, you can’t ask a question like that. I’m always going to deflect it. I never say I played good.”
After showing steady improvement in his first two seasons, McNeill has blossomed this fall into a more consistently disruptive player.
He had two sacks in the Lions’ Week 8 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. He already has surpassed his sack total from his first two years combined (three). And he has been a key cog in a run defense that ranks third in the NFL at 76.8 yards per game allowed.
McNeill said his offseason body transformation has contributed to his improved play, but more than that, he has made huge strides in the mental approach to his game.
“I was just doing too much thinking that didn’t even apply to me,” McNeill said of the past two seasons. “I was just wondering like, ‘What if they do this?’ I just need to do my job, worry about what’s in front of me, and that’s what I’m doing now.
“I was making up scenarios in my head, just thinking way too much. But now I’m a lot more comfortable out there, I know what’s going on, I know what I’m doing, I know what they’re doing, stuff like that.”
With a strong finish to the season, McNeill could be in line for a contract extension when he first becomes eligible this spring.
He said he’s open to that possibility and doesn’t “ever want to leave” Detroit, though it’s not on his mind now.
“I mean, I would be a fool to say I haven’t thought about it, but, like, am I thinking about it? Nah,” he said. “I just want to play ball and win, do my job the best that I can. When I start thinking about stuff like that, that’s kind of like how you’re a junior in college, you start thinking about going to the league, stuff like that. You just don’t think about that stuff, you just play.”
