Is Evan Neal Salvegable as an Offensive Tackle? A BUST?

[brownelvis54]

This season seems worse than 2017, We just made the playoffs and were hoping to take big step forward. Year 3 for Flowers. And we played Dallas first game. 3rd&3 and Flowers gets blown by for a sack. The whole season lit up in flames on first drive. Again, with Neal I feel worse. Flowers pick 9 and Neal picked 6th.You want to know the sad part? Both Dallas and Philly put together their vaunted O lines with largely second round or lower picks. lots of teams use only one pick in the 1st round for the offensive line. What the fork or we doing so wrong?!? IMO they should MOVE HIS ASS TO LG


We take a look back at Neal's college tape and see where the drop-off in his performance happened.


Let's start this breakdown by returning to his roots at Alabama. This time, we focus on his 2020 season, where he played right tackle for the tide. In the CFP Championship against Ohio State, we saw Neal perform against high-level competition.

The Alabama offense was not predicated on a bunch of straight drop-back passes, but you can see what he could get away with because he was a superior athlete to the competition.

He had a tendency to open his hips and shoulders, but most collegiate edge rushers could not get around him in time to impact the play. He would also hold his hands high, which resulted in his hand placement being higher up on the defender's shoulders than you would recommend.

As a pro, those things he got away with at Alabama have returned to bite him. The NFL uses a lot more wide 9-tech edge rushers and the speed rush as its primary pass-rush weapon. So Neal has to kick slide faster and cleaner to combat this rush.

When he opens the gate (turns his hips and shoulders), he sets an edge that the defenders use to get around him. His high hand placement also allows them to fake high, duck under his pass pro punch, and use hand fighting to knock his hands away. The result has been more consistent pressure on the quarterback whenever the defender can attack Neal's upfield or right shoulder.

It also sets up the counter off the speed rush, where the defender works back inside. Because Neal has to get his massive frame moving in one direction, he is not always balanced to post back down after his kick slides. He ends up chasing. These clips against Arizona and Miami illustrate the issues.


https://www.si.com/nfl/giants/big-blue-plus/is-evan-neal-salvegable-as-an-offensive-tackle

[brownelvis54]

Is Evan Neal a Better Fit at Guard or Tackle?

Coach Gene Clemons pulls up the tape and makes his case.

Left guard is a glaring weakness on the Giants offensive line but someone like Neal could bolster that position and conceal his deficiencies.

The tape has shown that Neal struggles against the speed rush off the edge. At right tackle, he's left on an island, and the results have been poor, but there is more to this game than pass protection, and Neal has done some nice work as a run block that has mostly gone unnoticed.

As a guard, he would no longer be on an island and the speed rush from between the tackles would be much more manageable than the speed rush off the edge. He would solidify the left side of the offensive line and provide the team with a dominant side to run behind.

Let's explore Neal's qualities that we think would make him a Pro Bowl-caliber left guard.



https://www.si.com/nfl/giants/big-blue-plus/is-evan-neal-a-better-fit-at-guard-or-tackle

[Painter]

We don't know and we won't unless and until the Giants use a high pick on an OT and we get the impression that they are going to move Neal inside to OG. But, let's not forget that following Andrew Thomas's struggles his first 2 seasons, we were hearing B-word murmurs about him, right here in All Knowing Land.

Cheers!

[killarich]

We don't know and we won't unless and until the Giants use a high pick on an OT and we get the impression that they are going to move Neal inside to OG. But, let's not forget that following Andrew Thomas's struggles his first 2 seasons, we were hearing B-word murmurs about him, right here in All Knowing Land.

Cheers!

Thomas did not struggle his softmore year like he did his rookie year

Neal got worse

[Jclayton92]

Thomas did not struggle his softmore year like he did his rookie year

Neal got worse

Neal didn't get worse this season, he actually was getting better every game until he was injured. It's a common misconception but he was playing a lot better. Was it perfect or even great tackle play? No but he has only played 20 total games which is just barely over a season worth of reps.

[DaveBrown74]

Huge, huge difference between Thomas' second season and Neal's second season. Non-comparison. Thomas was good in his second year.