Giants' Evan Neal will have to adjust to losing
Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal participates in drills during rookie minicamp in East Rutherford, N.J., on May 14. Credit: Noah K. Murray
There have been many things Evan Neal has needed to adjust to as he approaches the true start of his rookie season. Everything from the speed of the game to the strength of his opponents to the complexity of the playbook is different from what it was for him at Alabama and has required practice to overcome.
There is one thing the offensive lineman will need to figure out about the NFL that he couldn’t practice or master in the preseason, though. Something he has had very little experience dealing with in college or high school.
At some point this season, the Giants are bound to lose.
It may be this Sunday in their opener against the Titans. It may be the Sunday after that against the Panthers at home. It may not be for weeks and weeks, in which case elation and glee would be overflowing from the team’s facility and into the streets in front of the building, the flood disrupting the ceremony to re-christen the roads as Brian Daboll Drive and Joe Schoen Way.
But the chances of any team having a perfect run through this 2022 season are incalculably slim. The chances of these Giants being that team? Even more gossamer.
For Neal, who played for powerhouse programs all his life in which one slip-up on a Friday or Saturday put them on the precipice of a disastrous season and two Ls were akin to elimination, recalibrating the weight of losses is something that will require some getting used to.
“I’m sure that’s going to be an adjustment,” he said on Monday. “I’ve never really had to prepare for losing because I’ve never really lost too much in the past.”
The Giants, on the other hand . . .
They have won their opening game of the season just twice since 2010 and have lost in Week 1 every year since 2017. They have started with at least two straight losses for five straight years. The starting blocks have not been kind to this organization.
Throughout this streak of poor beginnings, there have been plenty of players who have arrived with pedigrees similar to Neal’s, players who were used to vying for national titles and aiming for undefeated seasons in college, only to find themselves mired in mounting losses with the Giants.
Landon Collins and Dalvin Tomlinson from Alabama, B.J. Goodson and Dexter Lawrence from Clemson, not to mention Saquon Barkley from Penn State and Andrew Thomas from Georgia; all of them thought they would find the same success in the NFL that they enjoyed in college but learned otherwise quite rapidly.
Only one player on the roster has ever been on a Giants team with a record of .500 or better, and that’s Sterling Shepard, who was a rookie on the 2016 playoff squad.
Into this trend steps Neal, the latest product from a blue-blood program trying to stop the Big Blue bleeding, spouting thoughts and phrases similar to those who preceded him.
“I hate losing,” he said. “I always have. Losing here is not something I’m going to focus on. I’m going to do everything in my power to help this team win.”
At some point, someone will say that and it will happen. It might be Neal this year. It might be next year’s high-profile rookie. It might take several more years for things to click.
In the meantime, Neal is bracing for the inevitability of some failure this coming season.
“You’re going to win, you’re going to lose, but I’m not going to focus on losing,” he said. “If we come up short, we’re going to learn from it and move on to the next one. Nobody likes to lose.”
Then he added: “I hope no one likes to lose.”
They probably don’t. But around here, some people just seem to get used to it faster than others.
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.
