Allen Park — The nicknames aren’t exactly flattering for a football player. Especially if you’re a 330-pound defensive lineman.
But Alim McNeill says he’s used to them by now, midway through his second offseason playing for Dan Campbell and the Lions.
“There’s ‘Mac,’ ‘Twinkletoes’ and ‘Dancing Bear,’” he said, shaking his head Tuesday after Day 1 of the Lions’ three-day mandatory minicamp. “I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be something new next week, too.”
But this latest one he’d caught wind of, well, that was something new, all right. Campbell began answering a question about McNeill in his pre-practice media session Tuesday by smiling and saying, “Buttercup?”
Say what?
“I don’t know where that comes from,” laughed McNeill, who says he’d prefer to go by “Mac” for now. “Nobody’s ever called me ‘Buttercup.’ That’s definitely a Coach Campbell thing. He’s the only person that would say that.”
Yet unlike the lyrics in that late-1960s chart-topper, “Build Me Up, Buttercup,” the compliments that accompany Campbell’s nicknames for McNeill are completely sincere.
So is the confidence that Campbell and the Lions’ front office seem to have in the defensive front they’ve begun to build here in Detroit, with general manager Brad Holmes putting four high draft picks on the line in his first two classes.
After using consecutive Day 2 picks to select defensive tackles Levi Onwuzurike and McNeill a year ago, the Lions took Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson with the No. 2 overall choice this year and then followed that up by taking another lineman, Kentucky’s Josh Paschal, in the second round. And that use of draft capital was, as Holmes likes to say, “intentional.”
“I think that that’s what you want,” Campbell said Tuesday. “You want this young core to continue to grow and develop and then we’re looking back here (in a few years) and these guys are a terror in the league and they’re a D-line that nobody wants to face.
“They do have talent, but they’re also relentless and they’re smart and they’re hardworking. So, yeah, I think that’s the idea. That was kind of the vision that Brad and I had the whole time.”
Favorable switch
This time of year, it’s often hard to see what things really will look like in the trenches. The players are practicing without pads, there is no “live” blocking or tackling, and no one is allowed to hit a quarterback. And, yes, I realize the same could be said of some of the regular-season games the Lions played the past few years, too.
But there are encouraging signs, nonetheless, and much of that starts up front, where defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is switching things up. The Lions will use more four-man fronts at the line of scrimmage, and they’re promising to play a more attacking style, one that both Campbell and Glenn say is designed to “showcase” the athletic traits that McNeill and some of the other young defensive linemen possess.
“Shoot, man, he’s arguably the strongest pound-for-pound player that we have,” Campbell said of McNeill, who was effectively a starter from Day 1 as a rookie. “He’s got a quick first step, he’s got good feet and he’s powerful. And when you’re built the way he is and have the tools that he has, he could be somewhat problematic for an offensive line. … The way I look at him, he’s one of those guys at the core of our team.”
For McNeill, the Lions’ revamped defensive scheme is a throwback to his freshman year at North Carolina State. And after spending the last few years playing the 0-technique, strictly as a nose tackle in a 3-4 front, the shift has him “really excited.”
Instead of playing directly over the opposing center, he’s now shading him to the side. And rather than a read-and-react approach, he and the rest of the linemen are now attacking one gap with one goal, really: “To play on their side of the line of scrimmage,” Campbell says.
“I’m able to use my speed and my power on the edge of guys,” McNeill said. “I only have to play half of a man instead of being head up. It’s a huge advantage. … You definitely get a lot more freedom. With this, I’m just able to get off the ball and do what I do.”
Same goes for Onwuzurike, a player Holmes coveted in the 2021 class and one that came in talking brashly about wanting to “(bleep) up” opposing offenses in the NFL. Onwuzurike wasn’t healthy as a rookie, but he looks to be now: Slimmed down, and revved up. And for what it’s worth, freedom feels good to him as well.
“That’s what we wanted all along,” said Onwuzurike, who despite his back issues played nearly 400 snaps as a rookie and had some of his best games against the Vikings and Bears. “People just like to go up, hit people, knock heads. I think it’s a great plan for our defense.”
Heavy investments
Of course, even the best-laid plans in the NFL still need the talent to make them work. But clearly, the Lions are making a serious investment there.
It’s something we saw the Lions do nearly a decade ago, when then-GM Martin Mayhew used three first-round picks in a four-year span to build a defensive front that became one of the league’s best in 2014.
And not coincidentally, the then-St. Louis Rams did something similar when Holmes was the team’s college scouting director. Over a seven-year stretch, they used four first-round picks on the defensive line, drafting Chris Long — a player Holmes has said Hutchinson reminds him of in many ways — Robert Quinn, Michael Brockers and Aaron Donald.
The latter has proven to be the best defensive player of his generation — and probably Mayhew’s biggest regret as a GM — so there’s no comparison to be made there.
But Holmes did make a point to bring Brockers with him to Detroit to help fortify the line while also mentoring the youngsters.
The other veterans are Charles Harris (27) and Romeo Okwara (26), who is returning from an Achilles injury. And in addition to Holmes’ draft picks, the Lions also are counting on one of Bob Quinn’s last picks, 2020 third-rounder Julian Okwara, in the rotation this fall. Brockers, 31, is the only player on the Lions’ roster over 30, and he’s four years older than the next-oldest defensive lineman, Bruce Hector.
“That’s crazy,” Brockers said, “because I feel like it’s some old rookies that we’ve got. They look old.”
But even though they show a real maturity in the way they go about their business — McNeill credits Brockers for some of his early growth as a pro — they still sound young, especially when they refer to Brockers as the “old guy.”
“That’s what I call him,” McNeill said, smiling. “He doesn’t like practicing on the indoor field because it makes his joints hurt. But I’m, like, ‘Not everybody out here is 40, so we’re good.’”
And the plan is to keep getting better, together. If they do, they just might be good enough as a unit to choose their own nickname.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @JohnNiyo