First, Evan Neal needs to get healthy. Then?
“Evan needs to play better,” Giants general manager Joe Schoen said. “He knows that.”
Schoen didn’t mince words Monday when discussing Neal, who has spent most of his pivotal second NFL season either getting beat at right tackle by pass-rushers (seven games) or watching from the sideline with two different ankle injuries (five).
Neal’s steady struggles since he was the No. 7 pick in the 2022 draft recently caused Schoen to revisit his college scouting tape, which suggests a search to see whether he was evaluated incorrectly or if he isn’t being developed to his strengths.
“I went back and watched the Alabama stuff: The kid can play,” Schoen said. “We just have to get him to be more consistent. I have a lot of confidence in Evan. He’s a hard-worker. It’s killing him right now to be out. He’s missing some valuable reps in Year 2.”
Neal is the key to the future of the offensive line.
If he reaches his potential, the Giants have two linchpin tackles and a rookie center to build around.
If he continues down the current path — 82 pressures and 10 sacks allowed on 843 pass-blocking snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, in 20 career games — then the Giants would be foolish to pencil in Neal as an unchallenged starter at right tackle next season.
The top of the 2024 draft is littered with highly regarded tackle prospects, but that would mean using three top-10 picks on offensive tackles in a five-year span and moving Neal to guard.
Is a position switch possible?
“No, I don’t think so,” Schoen said. “We are looking forward to getting him back, but he knows there are some things he can do better — and that’s what we expect from him.”
But head coach Brian Daboll couldn’t say for certain Monday that Neal will play again this season nor that he will reclaim a starting job from Tyre Phillips, who the Giants cut after training camp but re-signed and turned into a starter when all hell broke loose on the line.
“This is stuff we’ll all talk about when he’s ready to play,” Daboll said. “I don’t think he’s ready to play quite yet, but he’s getting there.”
An offensive line that has allowed 69 sacks — 14 more than any other team — and used 21 different combinations (nine to start) was at the center of derailing the season during a 2-8 start.
But Schoen rejected the premise that there was a flaw in roster construction and pointed to a rash of injuries, beginning with the hamstring that took All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas out of the season opener and caused him to miss the next seven games.
“We won 10 games with the same offensive line last year,” Schoen said, noting the swap of second-round pick John Michael Schmitz for departed free agents Nick Gates and Jon Feliciano was seen as an “upgrade.”
Schoen stressed that he can’t address all needs at once, but Giants fans know that building a capable offensive line is now a 10-year project that has spanned three general managers, five head coaches and seven position coaches.
“We are going to continue to work on it, and I do believe in building it up front and offensive line is important,” Schoen said. “Probably didn’t play as well as we needed to early on and it’s not all on the offensive line — sometimes it’s 11 guys on the same page.
“There are several different reasons, and then the continuity amongst those five [linemen] is very important.”
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