Giants Will Leave Evan Neal at Tackle for Now

Head coach Brian Daboll gives the reason behind the logic.

East Rutherford, NJ -- August 24, 2024 -- Evan Neal of the Giants before the game. The New York Giants and New York Jets meet at MetLife Stadium in the final preseason game of the 2024 season for both teams. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll said that offensive lineman Evan Neal, the seventh overall pick in the 2022 draft, will remain at tackle for now.

“We have enough guards,” Daboll said when asked why cross-training Neal at guard wasn’t an option. “He needs to continue to work at right tackle.”

Neal’s NFL career has not panned out as everyone thought it would when the Giants drafted him to be bookmark opposite left tackle Andrew Thomas. 

A large part of that has been due to injuries, the most recent of which, a season-ending ankle injury suffered last year, set Neal back in his offseason work to where he was shut down from the limited work he was doing in the spring only to start training camp on the PUP list.

Neal has looked passable as a run blocker this summer in his work with the two's and his preseason appearance. However, he continues to struggle with pass blocking and balance, at times landing on the ground rather than staying upright. 

In his lone preseason action, which came against the Jets in the finale, Neal, who was on a pitch count, played 21 snaps, 11 as a run blocker and 10 as a pass blocker. He allowed one sack in those ten pass-blocking snaps when he wasn’t as quick off the snap to get Takk McKinley blocked. 

On several other pass-block snaps, his footwork was off and some of his angles were poor. 

In the run-blocking department, he executed his combo-blocking assignments with aplomb and made the right decisions. He also finished his run blocks, which was a solid showing in that part of his game.  

Because Neal missed so much time in the spring, the Giants likely feel it might be too late to start cross-training him to expand whatever ability he offers. With Neal losing his starting job to Jermaine Eluemunor, the hope could be that he can be the team’s swing tackle.

“We'll work through that probably next week,” said general manager Joe Schoen when asked if Neal might fill that all-important backup role. “Once we get into the game, we'll talk about who is going to be active, who is not going to be active, and what their roles may be if injury occurs.”

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