Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft

#6 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Alim McNeill (NC State)

6’ 2”, 320 pounds; JR

Alim McNeill

A former top-200 overall recruit, Alim McNeill immediately stepped into action with the Wolfpack and played over 400 snaps all three years in college (between 10 and 11 games respectively).

In the last two seasons, he was the rock in the middle of that N.C. State defense. In 2019, he recorded 7.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks, but inexplicably wasn’t recognized for it by the ACC. Last year they thankfully made up for it, by making him first-team all-conference, with only one sack and 4.5 TFLs, but a pick-six.

Starting out as a linebacker and running back in high school, McNeill began his collegiate career at 299 pounds and added weight both years, to really build up that massive frame. He almost exclusively played true nose for the Wolfpack these last couple of years in their 3-3 front (90.7 percent between A-gaps) and uses a rather passive three-point stance to be able to play under control.

McNeill has just an absurd anchor, while playing with great leverage and weight distribution. You constantly see him take bumps from the side in the run game, but his base is just so sturdy, that he barely moves an inch, plus he has some pretty crazy grip strength, to pull big linemen to the ground in order to disengage. However, in the zone game, he can also cross face and rip through, while his effort in pursuit is excellent overall.

The center and guard may be engaged with him, but McNeill still finds a way to reach those edges and get his hands on the ball-carrier. And you can’t really leave him soloed up on the inside either, because he will move the blocker a couple of yards into the backfield and force the ball-carrier to redirect. On more angular blocks, McNeill has displayed some gap-shooting ability, while ripping underneath the blocker trying to push him down the line. Even when he is showing in the gap and the blocker tries driving him from the side, he will own that space and limit any cutbacks.

The NC State nose-tackle has certainly flashed some pass-rush ability the few times he was in one-on-ones, but with him being head-up on the center and the two ends across the tackles for the most part, he did face a lot of slide protections and was the recipient of guard help, which often forced him to take these wider rushes.

He has become much more active with his hands in that department though. McNeill has shown the ability to toss the first man to the side and then drive the second blocker backwards, as well as split two blockers and sort of power through their reaches. When he is facing solo-blocks, he shows that bear-like strength, to grab the pads of linemen and yank them to the side and his most effective move at this point is a tight swim after engaging initially.

Every once in a while, McNeill flashes a spin move that has a lot of potential, if he learns to clear the hips of the blocker while doing it. At times, you will see somebody slide his way and he hits that guy with a spin. that will leave the blocker turning himself around as well.

He does a really good job staying on his feet against cut-blocks in the quick game. The sack production may not always be there, but McNeill has recorded 50 total pressures over 764 pass rush snaps these last three seasons combined, despite all the attention he has received from offensive lines.

As sturdy as he may be against the run, McNeill could still play with a little better extension to keep vision on the backfield. It might be a coaching point to some degree, but McNeill gets very locked in with just holding his ground and staying engaged with the center, rather than reading blocks and working around them, in order to get to the action.

On down-blocks, he hasn’t shown the desire to work over the top and gets himself out of the play to some degree because of it. As a pass-rusher he hasn’t had a lot of chances to show out, but his aiming points are a little off and he doesn’t offer a very diverse skill-set at this moment.

There is really only the bull-rush, quick swim and a spin every once in a while. And he doesn’t always come off the ball with much of a plan. While his snap total is pretty high for a nose, the snaps he did get taken off the field came primarily on third downs and I don’t expect him to have a major role on those at the next level either.

This dude is an immovable object in the run game, who eats double-teams for breakfast. It’s almost comical how McNeill simply doesn’t move, even though a guard tries to blast him from the side.

His upside as a pass-rusher is fairly limited, but when I look at somebody like Brandon Williams for the Ravens, they find ways to make use of his strengths in that regard, as he could be more of a table-setter for different games up front. One of my favorite plays in 2020 was that pick-six he had against Virginia in the fourth quarter, where he tipped the ball to himself, to really put the game on ice.