Despite what they'd like you to believe, every NFL general manager, coach or scout has a far-from-perfect track record of evaluating talent. Every team has handful of draft picks that they wish they could get back, and unfortunately for the New York Giants, a recent 1st Round pick who will be making his return to the active roster can make a strong case for being that guy for general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll.
Selecting Evan Neal over a dozen picks before 2023 Pro Bowl offensive linemen Tyler Smith and Tyler Linderbaum went off the board in the 2022 NFL Draft could end up being a franchise-altering mistake that fans of the Giants will be forced to agonize over for the next decade. And sure, Smith and Linderbaum both play on the interior of the offensive line in Dallas and Baltimore respectively, but it's not as if the G-Men have an overabundance of talent anywhere along the offensive line. It's a group that was historically bad in 2023 and is widely expected to be among the worst units in the NFL in 2024.
With Andrew Thomas locked in as the starter at left tackle, that leaves Evan Neal to compete with free agent addition Jermaine Eluemunor for the starting right tackle job. Ahead of the Giants first preseason game, the team released an unofficial depth chart that listed Eluemunor as the starter, which isn't a huge surprise considering, A) Eluemunor started 31 games at right tackle for the Raiders over the last two years, B) Neal was just activated from the PUP List, and C) Neal hasn't resembled a starting right tackle at any point during his young NFL career.
That's an admittedly harsh sentiment, but one that's spot on, nonetheless. In each of his first two NFL seasons, Evan Neal has been ranked 80th among 81 qualified tackles according to Pro Football Focus. For a guy who was the 7th overall pick in the NFL Draft to perform so poorly is objectively a disaster, and Neal knows it's time to turn things around.
“Yeah, it’s a big year for me,” Evan Neal said, via a transcript from the team (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). “I’m not going to sit here and act like it’s not, but at the end of the day, the past two years, they weren’t perfect by any means, but I feel like they were solid. They definitely weren’t what I wanted them to be, but a lot of things that happened were just out of my control, just like the future, it’s out of my control. I can only control the present and how I approach every single day, and that will be a big indication of my future.”
Evan Neal looks for fresh start with Giants in 2024
Thanks to consistently poor play during his first two NFL seasons, Evan Neal was bound to draw the ire of Giants fans even if he consistently said and did the right things. But last season, this wasn't the case. Neal ruffled feathers early last year when he made comments that were critical of Giants fans who had been booing the team during a particularly grisly Monday Night Football loss to the Seattle Seahawks. It didn't take long for Neal to backtrack and issue an apology. Just about a month later, Brian Daboll was caught on camera asking Neal “what the fork” was going on following a false start penalty against the Raiders.
Assuming Eluemunor holds onto the starting right tackle job, that leaves Evan Neal to occupy the swing tackle spot, or to try his hand at competing for a starting job along the interior of the Giants offensive line with the likes of Greg Van Roten, Aaron Stinnie and Jon Runyan. In the past, Neal has been resistant to making a move to guard, but recently stated that he'd be willing to take on “whatever role that I'm asked.”
The Giants allowed 85 sacks in 2023, the second-most in the history of the NFL, so the role that Evan Neal should be hoping to occupy by the end of training camp is that of “guy who doesn't allow his quarterback to be beaten like a piñata.”
Follow Us
Subscribe