Isaiah Buggs' weird year took another turn Tuesday when the Detroit Lions waived the veteran defensive tackle to clear roster space for the return of Alim McNeill.

Buggs was a key cog on the Lions' defensive line last season, starting 13 games and playing a key role as a run-stopper late in the year.

The Lions re-signed Buggs to a two-year deal this offseason, then de-activated him at the start of the season for reasons that were never fully explained.

Buggs told the Free Press before Week 1 he thought his absence from offseason workouts contributed to his benching. He skipped most of his voluntary workouts to stay home with his newborn baby.

Buggs played in 10 games for the Lions this season, had one sack, and recovered a fumble in the Lions' Week 15 win over the Denver Broncos. He appeared in each of the Lions' past four games, but did not have a tackle against the Dallas Cowboys or Minnesota Vikings.

Before the Vikings game, Buggs told the Free Press he was looking forward to celebrating a division championship and had settled into his new role.

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"Like I always told y’all, whatever this team needs me to do, I'm going to do it," he said. "I’m a team player. I need to buy into what the coaches, what they have for me and I’m taking every opportunity I have with this chance that I’m getting to be great each and every time I’m out there. So like I said, can’t take none of it for granted, just got to go to work."

The Lions have an excess of defensive linemen and tough roster decisions to make with at least two key defensive contributors due back from injury.

McNeill is expected to return to practice from injured reserve Wednesday and could play in Sunday's season finale against the Vikings, and Lions coach Dan Campbell said Monday he hopes safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson will return to the active roster from IR this week, too. Gardner-Johnson has been out since Week 2 with a torn pectoral muscle.

Outside linebacker James Houston also returned to practice from IR last week, though he's still at least another week away from playing, and Campbell said the Lions hope to re-sign recently released fullback Jason Cabinda this week.

Benito Jones has started most of the season at nose tackle, and the Lions also have young defensive tackles Brodric Martin and Levi Onwuzurike on their 53-man roster and veteran Tyson Alualu on practice squad.

Alualu played 34 snaps in his Lions debut last week, four more than Jones and 11 more than Buggs. Martin and Onwuzurike were inactive.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions waive DL Isaiah Buggs to make room for Alim McNeil