When the New York Giants drafted Alabama tackle Evan Neal, everyone believed it was a solid choice. Neal’s size and athleticism are something the Giants line needs, but it hasn’t been all rainbows and unicorns for Neal since he joined the Giants.
His struggles showed up in training camp and were visible to the world against the New England Patriots last week, causing him to be named one of the NFL’s ‘most disappointing rookies’ (so far) by the Bleacher Report.
The New York Giants drew praise for their selection of Evan Neal at No. 7. They landed a potential franchise offensive tackle—a prospect some believed could go as high as first overall—who filled a major need.
Unfortunately, Neal’s NFL career hasn’t gotten off to a hot start.
The Alabama product had his struggles during training camp. Nick Falato of Big Blue View pointed out some of the more glaring issues, saying Neal’s “set-depth is inconsistent, he’s guessing too much, and he’s oversetting” in matchups on the edge.
Most of the struggles mentioned about Neal so far are likely mental mistakes. Set-depth being inconsistent, too much guessing, oversetting in matchups on the edge, those are not athletic traits that need to be worked on, those are knowledge traits that can be taught.
Should he already know them? Probably. But the good news is, again, that these are correctable issues.
Because of his ho-hum practice performances, it shouldn’t have come as much surprise that Neal struggled in the G-Men’s 2022 preseason opener against the New England Patriots.
Neal started and played 19 offensive snaps at right tackle, looking overmatched on several of them. At one point, the 21-year-old was tossed aside by New England Patriots edge-rusher Anfernee Jennings.
For perspective, Jennings is about six inches shorter and almost 100 pounds lighter than Neal, so that interaction should have definitely gone in a different direction. But Jennings also has two years of NFL experience under his belt where that was Neal’s first game.
Neal did have some bright spots during the game, which shows that the potential is there. Now the brand-new front office and coaching staff have to figure out how to bring that potential out.
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