{"id":36062,"date":"2025-10-21T11:35:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:35:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T11:35:17","slug":"breaking-lions-predicted-to-part-ways-with-second-year-defensive-lineman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2230480748-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2230480748-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2230480748-1.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2230480748-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Detroit Lions made a big statement with Monday\u2019s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, bouncing back from their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and asserting themselves as one of the NFC\u2019s top Super Bowl contenders.<\/p>\n<p>The win also likely affirmed that the Lions will be buyers at the upcoming NFL trade deadline, bolstering some key positions on both sides of the ball. But one team insider believes the Lions could also make at least one subtraction, parting ways with a once-promising defensive lineman who has fallen down the depth chart this season.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Lions Could Give Fresh Start to 2024 Draft Pick<\/h2>\n<p>Reporter Mike Payton of AtoZ Sports noted that the Lions don\u2019t have many obvious trade candidates on their team, the end result of careful roster building from general manager Brad Holmes. But the team could look to defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo as a chance to get back a late-round draft pick.<\/p>\n<p>After appearing in 11 games his rookie season in 2024, the sixth-round pick has taken the field just once this season. Payton noted that he is a poor fit for Detroit\u2019s defense and doesn\u2019t have an obvious path to see more playing time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy is Wingo available? It\u2019s because he\u2019s in a tough spot right now,\u201d Payton wrote. \u201cHe just doesn\u2019t seem to fit into what the Lions want to do on defense. Because of that, he\u2019s been a healthy scratch every week since Week 2. Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked about it this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Campbell noted that the return of defensive lineman Alim McNeill for the first time this season adds more depth to the team\u2019s defensive line. Campbell noted that this could lead to some difficulty for Wingo as he isn\u2019t a regular on special teams, making it likely he will remain a healthy scratch unless there is an injury ahead of him on the depth chart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a little bit of that now that you\u2019ve got all your guys, where exactly does it fit?\u201d Campbell said. \u201cHe can play some three and nose, but we\u2019ve got a lot more versatility now. And then he\u2019s not really special teams, so it just kind of puts him in one of those spots where he just keeps working.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Payton cautioned that the Lions would not get a big return for Wingo, but could add some trade capital or serve as an add-on player in a bigger trade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you should expect is something more like a 2026 seventh-round pick or that Wingo would potentially be involved in a trade package for another team,\u201d Payton wrote.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Alim McNeill\u2019s Big Return<\/h2>\n<p>The Lions got a big boost at the top of their depth chart with McNeill\u2019s return for Monday\u2019s win over the Buccaneers. He quickly made up for lost time, putting pressure on quarterback Baker Mayfield and knocking down a pass in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>McNeill said it felt good to hear his name called and fans cheer him again, close to a year after he suffered a season-ending torn ACL.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI forgot how that felt,\u201d McNeill said, via the Detroit News. \u201cWatching the game on the sideline when I was out, it\u2019s like watching it like it was on TV. But being in it is so much different. That joy is what I was deprived of. I forgot how much I really, really, really love this game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Detroit Lions could look to trade defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo after the 2024 draft pick&#8217;s tumble down the depth chart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Detroit Lions could look to trade defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo after the 2024 draft pick&#039;s tumble down the depth chart.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-21T11:35:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062\",\"name\":\"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman - Breaking News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-21T11:35:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-21T11:35:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\",\"name\":\"MrKen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrKen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman - Breaking News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman - Breaking News","og_description":"The Detroit Lions could look to trade defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo after the 2024 draft pick's tumble down the depth chart.","og_url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062","og_site_name":"Breaking News","article_published_time":"2025-10-21T11:35:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"MrKen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrKen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062","name":"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman - Breaking News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png","datePublished":"2025-10-21T11:35:17+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-21T11:35:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lion-40.png","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=36062#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BREAKING : Lions Predicted to Part Ways With Second-Year Defensive Lineman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/","name":"Breaking News","description":"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15","name":"MrKen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrKen"},"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36064,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36062\/revisions\/36064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}