Can beleaguered third-year right tackle take advantage of it?
The saying goes that you are only as strong as your weakest link. For two years, Evan Neal has been considered the weakest link on the New York Giants’ offensive line.
Will that change in 2024? Entering the season, the third-year right tackle remains the line’s biggest question mark. Can he stay healthy? Can he improve on his sub-par play in his first two seasons? Will he even make it to Week 1 as the team’s starting right tackle?
It’s time to talk about Neal as we continue our player-by-player profiles of the Giants’ 90-man roster.
The skinny
Height: 6-foot-7
Weight: 340
Opening day age: 23 (24 on Sept. 19)
Position: RT
Experience: 2
Contract: Year 3 of four-year, $24,551,256 rookie deal | 2024 cap hit: $6,695,797 | Guaranteed at signing: $24,551,256
Career to date
The Giants had the fifth and seventh overall picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. Joe Schoen, with three offensive tackles and one edge defender on his wish list in his first-ever draft as a general manager, chose edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux at No. 5 and then Neal at No. 7.
The Giants could have had their choice of Neal, Ickey Ekwonu, and Charles Cross at No. 5 and probably still gotten Thibodeaux at No. 7, but they chose the opposite path. We can argue … and argue … and argue over whether or not the Giants did the right thing.
Schoen admitted liking Ekwonu enough that he and Neal were “side-by-side” on the Giants’ draft board. So, perhaps he took Thibodeaux at No. 5 knowing he would be happy with either Ekwonu or Neal at No. 7.
Here is some of what I wrote the night the Giants drafted Neal:
GM Joe Schoen said Thursday night that the Giants’ top-rated tackles, Neal and Ickey Ekwonu (who went No. 6 to the Carolina Panthers) were “side-by-side.”
So, Schoen said the Giants snagged Neal at No. 7 “because Ickey was gone at six.”
There is, though, much more to it than that.
The Giants plan to play Neal at right tackle, and he is the only one of the three top tackles to have extensive experience at that spot.
“It helps when you’re going to draft a player at number 7 and you get to see him do what you’re going to ask him to do. That makes you feel good,” Schoen said. “We definitely went back, we studied his tape from last season when he was at right tackle and even watched some of the stuff at guard. His versatility is important. One guy goes down in a game, it helps the eight guys you take on game day. If a guy can move around like that and help you out, that’s an added plus, too.”
Neal played guard and both tackles at Alabama. Brent Taylor of SB Nation’s Roll’BamaRoll recently told the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast that Neal’s best tape with the Crimson Tide is at right tackle.
Maybe you were an Ekwonu fan. I was. I loved the nasty demeanor Ekwonu played with in college. Perhaps you were a fan of the smooth pass-protection potential of Charles Cross.
The Giants took Neal, and were happy to do so largely because there was actual physical evidence of him playing and succeeding at right tackle, the position the Giants were asking him to play.
The pick was widely praised at the time. Here is what Pro Football Focus said about the Neal selection:
The Giants’ decision to draft Thibodeaux at No. 5 signals they were comfortable with multiple tackles at this spot. Evan Neal is the cleanest fit as the player who spent time at right tackle in 2020 with Alabama. The 6-foot-8, 337-pound tackle is one of the best pound-for-pound athletes in this class and is coming off back-to-back seasons with PFF grades north of 83.0. There’s a lot to be excited about with the Andrew Thomas-Neal tandem at tackle.
Sports Illustrated wrote:
Neal will be the steal of the draft. The Alabama tackle has the most natural kick back for an offensive lineman I’ve ever seen. His ability, at that size, to drop into standard protection, rebalance and find a center of power is something to behold.
There were some scattered warnings about possible injury issues because of his size. There was also some concern over balance and footwork issues, though they seemed fixable.
By and large, though, most thought Schoen had hit a first-round home run. At Big Blue View, 96% (2,096) of the 2,190 voters in our poll gave the pick an ‘A’.
To this point, it just hasn’t worked out the way most thought it would.
Neal’s footwork and balance issues have not improved. Injuries, a knee in 2022 and an ankle in 2023, have limited him to appearing in only 20 of 34 regular-season games, along with missing considerable practice time. There was also a training camp concussion last season that cost him about two weeks of practice.
In 2022, Neal was PFF’s lowest-graded tackle out of 57 qualifiers with a 41.8 overall grade. In 2023, Neal’s 39.8 grade was 83rd out of 85 qualifiers.
Neal has always been accountable for his failings, though he did take on critical fans last year in this unfortunate rant he eventually apologized for:
“Why would a lion concern himself with the opinion of a sheep? … I genuinely don’t care. Why should I? I’m in the National Football League. The person that’s commenting on my performance, what does he do? Flip hot dogs and hamburgers somewhere?”
Unfortunately, Neal has not played like that lion. Nor has he looked like a player who “stepped out of the womb” as an offensive tackle.
2024 outlook
Neal is undeniably a question mark entering the season. Maybe the biggest question mark on the roster. Yes, bigger than Daniel Jones. After all, we have seen Jones put together a good season and help the Giants reach the playoffs.
Neal barely participated in spring practices as he works back from ankle surgery that limited him to seven games last season.
The Giants are committed to giving Neal another chance to get healthy and show he can be the right tackle the Giants thought he could be. Schoen said last season and again at the NFL Scouting Combine that he has reviewed Neal’s play at Alabama and does not believe the Giants missed on their evaluation, who turns 24 on Sept. 19.
How long is Neal’s 2024 leash? What is the bar Neal has to meet or exceed to stay at right tackle this season? I’m not sure even the Giants know the answers to those questions.
There is, though, a Plan B in place. The Giants signed veteran offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor in free agency. They plan to play him at left guard, but Eluemunor played successfully at right tackle for new Giants offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo while the two were with the Las Vegas Raiders the past two seasons.
Eluemunor was PFF’s 24th-ranked tackle (out of 57) in 2022 and 38th (out of 56) in 2023. If Neal flops, Eluemunor would likely move out to right tackle with Aaron Stinnie the leading candidate right now to take over at left guard.
What becomes of Neal should that happen? Maybe he gets moved to guard and competes for that left guard spot. Maybe he becomes a swing tackle. Maybe he ends up buried as a weekly inactive player. Maybe the Giants look to move on from him, getting whatever they can in a deal.
The Giants, though, hope they don’t have to cross that bridge.
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