Dan Campbell: Alim McNeill being healthy is huge for Lions' defense

Published July 31, 2026 09:45 AM Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill tore his ACL in December of 2024, wasn’t cleared to return until the middle of the 2025 season, and was never fully healthy last year. Now, he is.Coach Dan Campbell said the impact on the Lions’ defense of having McNeill at 100 percent is going to be massive.“Mac is very important. It is gonna be huge,” Campbell said. “I know we’re only two days in, but he does look better. He looks like he’s back to what he was. He’s healthy. He would never say anything about it, he never did last year, but when we went back and watched clip after clip back to back, he was favoring the leg a little bit. I don’t think he even realized it. It’s just good to have him back. He looks great, he’s moving well and he’s a huge piece of our defense.”Asked about center Juice Scruggs struggling in practice, Campbell attributed that more to how well McNeill is practicing.“It’s also going against Alim McNeill, and Mac’s practicing really well right now,” Campbell said.McNeill was playing at a very high level before his injury in 2024, and if the Lions can get him back to that level, they’ve added a huge piece to their defense that wasn’t in place last year.