The Detroit Lions have largely avoided big contract and big salary cap number as they’ve risen to success. With contract extensions that have been done and are to come, those days are numbered.
The Lions “reward their own” like no other team quite does. Along that line, they signed defensive tackle Alim McNeill to a four-year, $97 million contract extension last fall. By average annual value ($24.25 million), the deal made him the fourth-highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL (he is now fifth).
McNeill suffered a torn ACL in Week 15 last season. So his availability for the start of next season is an automatic question, to the point the Lions may take a defensive tackle early in the draft or consider adding another veteran in the secondary waves of free agency. The full range of a typical 9-12 month recovery timetable for a torn ACL basically spans next season.
Analyst jumps to conclusion to call Alim McNeill overpaid
McNeil’s new contract kicks in this year, with a reasonable $6.36 million cap hit. Those numbers of course go up significantly from 2026-2028, and the Lions are already locked into a lot of money for 2026 ($20 million, between $19.85 million in base salary and a $150,000 workout bonus).
Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report recently named each NFL team’s most overpaid player, and after a bit of apparent deliberation he went with McNeill for the Lions.
“I thought about going with $53 million quarterback Jared Goff based on his playoff implosion this past season, but he’s earned a bit more benefit of the doubt the last couple years. Instead, we’ll go with a promising and talented defensive lineman who has yet to fully deliver and is now dealing with a torn ACL. When will McNeill break through? The 24-year-old is due more than $85 million between 2026 and 2028.”
“When will McNeill breakthrough?” Well, he has been graded by Pro Football Focus as a top-10 defensive tackle in each of the last two regular seasons, with a total of 79 quarterback pressures, 62 hurries and 8.5 sacks. The breakthrough appears to have happened.
As Gagnon seemed to point to though, missing noticeable time (at least three games) in each of the last two seasons has surely kept McNeill from having a full-on breakout campaign. And those cap numbers in 2026 ($28.96 million), 2027 ($27.16 million) and 2028 ($29.2 million) do look daunting, especially with his health outlook for 2025 as cloudy as it is right now.
Without his torn ACL, it’s unlikely anyone would question how aggressive the Lions were in making McNeill a top-five paid defensive tackle. Even considering the injury, Gagnon almost didn’t do it. But due to a lack of other “overpaid” options on the Lions’ roster, at least for now, McNeill’s situation gave him the nod.
