{"id":356121,"date":"2025-12-18T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/356121\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:26:08","slug":"evan-neal-looking-to-make-most-of-time-left-with-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/356121\/","title":{"rendered":"Evan Neal Looking to Make Most of Time Left with Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Giants<\/a> offensive lineman Evan Neal has seen the handwriting on the wall dating back to the start of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Neal, after failing to convince the coaching staff that he had advanced enough in his conversion from tackle to guard, he not only didn\u2019t grab a spot in the starting lineup, but he also couldn\u2019t get on the field in any capacity.<\/p>\n

The No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, who has been on injured reserve with a hamstring injury,\u00a0 is bound for destinations unknown after this season. <\/p>\n

That’s because the Giants, in not picking up his rookie year option, appear to be done with him, but not before they opened his 21-day practice window with about that many days left of a disappointing 2025 season, a move that allows Neal to get some football reps in during practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you can\u2019t control what you can\u2019t control, you don\u2019t try to focus on that,\u201d Neal told reporters on Wednesday after practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kind of tried to go inward, you know, just focus on Evan, just focus on the things I can do to continue to keep myself mentally strong, physically strong, and just be ready for whatever’s next.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the time being, what\u2019s next is that Neal will give the Giants another live body during practice. But beyond that, interim head coach Mike Kafka admitted there are no plans to disrupt the current offensive line configuration, which could mean that Neal\u2019s 21-day window was purposely set to expire during the remaining days of this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got five guys that are playing their butt off right now for us, and we’re not looking to make any changes,\u201d Kafka said.<\/p>\n

Neal was supposed to be the bookend tackle on the right side to left tackle Andrew Thomas. He started 13 games as a rookie, allowing 52 pressures according to Pro Football Focus, tying him for the third most<\/a> among tackles that season.<\/p>\n

The following year, Neal, who dealt with ankle injuries, finished with 29 pressures allowed in 309 pass-blocking snaps. <\/p>\n

He would end up losing his starting job in 2024 when he experienced a setback in his recovery from season-ending ankle surgery, and newcomer Jermaine Eluemunor proved to be a rock at that position.<\/p>\n

The team tried converting Neal to guard this past summer, perhaps secretly hoping that he would supplant Greg Van Roten at right guard. But that experiment failed to yield the desired results, and Neal was banished to the inactive list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI practiced hard, and I just did everything that I could do within the best of my abilities to go out there and play,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neal, who obviously would have liked for his career to have taken a different path, seemed to be at peace with the team\u2019s decisions and his upcoming future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still see value in myself as a player, and whatever the future holds, hey, I’m excited for,\u201d Neal said.<\/p>\n

What happens next with the NY Giants? Find out! Follow and like us on Facebook<\/a>. Visit our YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0 for the latest videos. Want to send a question in for our mailbag? You can do so here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More New York Giants Coverage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Giants offensive lineman Evan Neal has seen the handwriting on the wall dating back to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-356121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}