Max Starks believes the Giants acquired the No. 1 participant within the 2022 NFL Draft with the No. 7 decide.
“Evan Neal was my No. 1 prospect in the draft, and I was surprised Jacksonville didn’t take him,” Starks, 40, a two-time Super Bowl successful Pittsburgh Steelers deal with, instructed the Daily News. “Every crew is constructed from the skin now within the NFL — from large receivers to offensive tackles to quarterbacks — and also you construct in.
“So I was surprised Jacksonville didn’t take him,” added Starks, an NFL analyst for the Steelers, ESPN and Sirius XM who known as the draft. “Obviously Ickey Ekwonu went [to Carolina] the pick before. But for the Giants, I think they got the best one.”
NFL analyst Brian Baldinger stated Neal’s 6-7, 351-pound dimension alone was a uncommon trait, even when he first confirmed up as a freshman at Alabama.
“I was talking to Patrick Surtain about him and asked what do you remember about Evan Neal coming to Tuscaloosa? He said, ‘Baldy, man, that’s the biggest elephant I’ve ever seen,’” stated Baldinger, who performed 11 seasons on the O-line for the Cowboys, Colts and Eagles.
“He just came in big, with a big pro body at age 18, then played left guard, right tackle and left tackle,” Baldinger, 62, added. “I respect that.”
Willie Colon, a former Super Bowl champ with the Steelers, performed each guard and deal with throughout his profession. And he stated Neal’s flipping from proper to left deal with so naturally at his dimension was spectacular.
“It’s more his talent plus his coaching, the fact that at his size, they can make him comfortable to play guard or kick out to left tackle,” Colon stated at his charity golf outing in Summit, N.J. “Because I think it’s way harder to go from right tackle to left tackle. Inside you can be protected from the center or whatever. But to go to right tackle, left tackle, it just shows Goddamn, the kid’s got a lot of talent.”
Let’s face it: the Giants’ offensive line has been an annual drawback for too lengthy. A participant this imposing is lengthy overdue.
“The Giants have been plagued with bad O-line play for a while,” Colon stated. “You’ve gotta start getting some guys who can ball, who you feel like can be a part of your organization for the next 5, 6 years. And the fact is he’s 6-7, 350. His athleticism’s through the roof. And he’s played at an elite level for a long time against some big time competitors in college.”
Neal, 21, performed 13 video games at left guard for the Crimson Tide in 2019, 12 video games at proper deal with in 2020 and 15 at left deal with in his last 12 months with Nick Saban final fall.
The Giants have began him at proper deal with, with 2020 No. 4 total decide Andrew Thomas on the left facet.
The first-team O-line at Thursday’s OTA observe noticed free agent signing Mark Glowinski at proper guard, free agent signing Jon Feliciano at heart, incumbent Shane Lemieux at left guard and Korey Cunningham at left deal with (with Thomas recovering from left ankle surgical procedure).
Neal stated it was good to get again on the sphere at observe in his stance on the correct facet, because it has been greater than a 12 months since he’s performed there.
“Brought back some pretty good nostalgia,” he stated with a smile.
Expectations will likely be excessive for Neal proper out of the gate. Giants offensive line coach Bobby Johnson stated one in every of Neal’s defining qualities is that “he wants to be really good. And the more you talk to him, you find out it’s not lip service. It’s real.”
“Evan puts a lot of pressure on himself,” Johnson stated. “He was drafted in the top 10 and he came to New York City. That alone is enough pressure to crush a player… One of my keys with him right now is, ‘Hey, my job is to coach you. If you need any pressure applied, let me do it.’”
Quarterback Daniel Jones naturally was “excited” to see the Giants draft a bookend deal with and likewise commented on Neal’s drive to enhance.
“Evan has looked great so far, and you can tell he really wants to learn it. He wants to pick it up,” Jones stated. “It’s important to him. He’s working hard.”
While Neal is quiet and understated, he additionally has a nasty facet that he lets out on the sphere. That’s why, though he digs into his early offseason studying, he’d slightly observe in pads.
“We hit a whole lot at Alabama, so I guess Coach Saban made me that way,” he stated with fun. “There’s a time and place for everything, but right now just trying to get the fundamentals down and get better.”
Baldinger stated Neal popping out of Saban’s gauntlet so sturdy is not any small factor.
“I respect that for a guy that lined up and played 41 straight games in that conference,” Baldinger stated. “First of all you’re getting beat up every day in practice by Nick. Then you’re going out against the nation’s best every Saturday and you’re holding up. And you’ve done it for three years in a row. I think that’s the ultimate warrior test.”
Technically, Baldinger stated Neal “doesn’t look like he has some of the issues Andrew [Thomas] had coming out of Georgia.”
“They bragged about [Thomas’] athletic ability,” Baldinger stated. “That’s only because his feet were never in the ground. Once he got his feet in the ground he became a better player. Evan Neal’s feet look like they’re in the ground to me.”
Despite his mammoth dimension, Baldinger stated he believes Neal is greater than succesful than shifting his ft to get exterior on stretch runs in Brian Daboll’s offense.
“Dion Dawkins did that at Buffalo,” Baldinger stated. “Nobody thought he could play tackle in the NFL, now he’s started [five] straight years for Buffalo. I think [Neal] can do all that stuff well enough. You’re not going to Alabama and not being able to run.”
Although the Giants’ plan is to play Thomas on the left facet and Neal on the correct, Starks stated Neal’s versatility at deal with additionally makes him a greater match for the Giants than Ekwonu would have been out of N.C. State — in case Thomas will get damage or someday isn’t with the crew.
“I felt he was the most versatile, whereas Ickey is more of a true right tackle, probably could play some guard for you,” Starks stated. ”He doesn’t have the flexibility but, I don’t suppose, to play left deal with — whereas Evan Neal is a plug and play starter at no matter place you wish to put him in.”
Baldinger stated the movie reveals that Neal is “a waist bender, not a knee bender,” as evidenced by his potential to play guard. “So he’s not gonna get overextended the way Andrew Thomas did a lot his rookie year.”
He stated initially, Neal is “massive, just massive.” He’s acquired a large physique,” he stated. “It’s hard to go around him. It’s hard to go through him. I can find plays where he’s off balance, the guy kinda rocks him a little bit, they’re a little slower to recover. But those guys have a way of turning everything into a wrestling match when that happens. And that’s what you have to do.”
Baldinger additionally stated taking part in alongside Glowinski will likely be key. He in contrast Eagles proper deal with Lane Johnson’s first-team All-Pro 2017 season with Brandon Brooks subsequent to him to Johnson’s different years when Brooks was damage or unavailable.
“You’re only gonna be as strong as the guard next to you,” Baldinger stated.
Giants GM Joe Schoen acknowledged that 8% of the NFL had medical points with Neal. SI.com reported it associated to Neal’s knee and hip. But the Giants’ medical doctors have been “fine with everything,” and Neal’s sturdiness within the SEC strengthened their conclusions.
So they drafted him, and in Neal’s phrases, “my dreams came true.”
Now he’s out to validate their confidence in him.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com