Evan Neal running out of time to show Giants he can live up to potential
Evan Neal of the Giants walks off the field after a game against the Seahawks at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 2. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It’s never ideal when an NFL general manager feels the need to go back and rewatch two-year-old college film of a first-round pick to make sure he wasn’t missing any red flags in his evaluation. That’s what Joe Schoen wound up doing recently in regard to struggling offensive tackle Evan Neal. Schoen wanted to see if the things he saw when he was initially evaluating the player (who turned out to be the seventh overall pick in the 2022 draft) were still there, while keeping an eye out for any warning signs or weaknesses that might have gotten glossed over the first time around.
The good news, sort of, for the Giants, is that Neal’s video resume from Alabama was still impressive.
“The kid can play,” Schoen said.
So why is he among the worst rated players at his position?
“Evan needs to play better,” Schoen decreed.
If only it were that simple. And the hiccup in all of this is Neal isn’t able to do much of anything these days. He was sidelined for a fourth straight game on Monday night against the Packers with a sprained left ankle that occurred in the Week 9 game in which he returned after missing two games with a right ankle injury. He also had a concussion in the preseason that robbed him of some reps.
Neal has hardly practiced in two months and has played just 50 game snaps since mid-October. It’s hard to get better under those circumstances.
This 2023 campaign is quickly becoming something neither Neal nor the Giants could afford in his development: a lost season.
Neal, at least, still has his confidence.
“I’ve put a lot of dominant reps on tape,” he said last week. “A lot of times they go unnoticed. A lot of times the reps that I struggle get highlighted. But if you really sit back and watch the tape, I do a lot of good things. I do a lot of dominant things on the football field.”
The stats don’t agree with that. Neal ranks 97th among NFL tackles in Pro Football Focus’ pass-blocking efficiency, having allowed 30 pressures (two of them for sacks) in 309 snaps. Then there have been some embarrassing moments that go viral such as him blocking his own teammate rather than the opponent or completely whiffing on some edge rushers.
Not that Neal is paying much attention to that kind of analysis. He’s learned to ignore the noise as best he can. Some of that lesson came the hard way, as when he sniped at and degraded fans who were booing his play.
“There is a lot of negative that surrounds this business at times,” he said. “I can’t control that. Everyone has an opinion.”
What he can control is what is happening in his own helmet.
“As a human in terms of getting the best out of yourself, you can’t just beat yourself down, beat yourself down, beat yourself down,” he said. “At some moment, you have to lift yourself up and acknowledge, Hey, I’m doing pretty good. I know in this area I have some work to do, but in this area I’m doing pretty well.”
Neal grades out much better in run blocking, which has some football folks suggesting he might be better suited as a guard. No, he said firmly.
“As soon as I stepped out of the womb,” he said, “I stepped out as an offensive tackle.”
The choices for him are simple, then: Get better quickly… or become a bust. He’s not the owner of that dreadful label yet, but it’s getting closer than it needs to be.
Neal does have one very close example of a player who managed to improve dramatically after struggles early in his career. Just a few lockers away is Andrew Thomas.
"His [path] was very similar to mine and to see where he’s at it definitely is inspiring for sure,” Neal said. “I talk with A.T. all the time, l chop it up with him all the time.”
By this point in his second season, though, Thomas had already shed the struggles of his rookie season and was on his way toward being one the game’s elites in his breakout third NFL year. Neal hasn’t yet seemed to emerge from those starting blocks. And he certainly isn’t making up ground sidelined with this ankle injury.
“He’s in here often with the trainers,” is all coach Brian Daboll could say of Neal’s progress. “Active in the meetings, so he’s doing everything he can do to get back as soon as he can.”
With just four games remaining, that might not be until next season.
“Whenever that day gets here, that’s when it gets here,” Neal said. “Hell yeah, I want to go back out there this season, but I’m just going to see where I’m at, see how I progress, and move forward from there.”
The Giants need Neal to get back. They need him to get better.
Otherwise, by this time next year, they’ll be scouring his old college tapes once again still trying to figure out what went wrong.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.