Evan Neal’s Giants story has gone from disappointment to desperation, and this summer may decide whether there’s anything left to salvage.
New York brought back the former No. 7 overall pick on a $1.215 million deal, a low-risk move that was supposed to give him a shot to compete at right guard. Then the Giants spent the No. 10 overall pick on Francis Mauigoa, and Neal’s path narrowed fast.
He is no longer fighting for a starting job. He is fighting to stay on the roster at all.
That’s a sharp fall for a player the Giants once believed could anchor their offensive line. Instead, Neal has become a reclamation project on a minimum-level contract, with new head coach John Harbaugh betting that there is still something worth unlocking in him - just not at tackle.
Harbaugh made that case plainly at the league meetings in March. “They haven’t broken through yet, but why can’t they?”
he said of Neal and Joshua Ezeudu (h/t SI). The logic is obvious enough: Neal’s size and power might play better inside, where his struggles against speed off the edge matter less and his lack of recovery quickness can be masked in tighter spaces.
At 6-foot-7 and 360 pounds, Neal looks the part of an interior mauler. Harbaugh wants an offense that is “big, blue and bruising.” On paper, Neal fits that vision better than he ever fit the tackle spot.
But the Giants have built the room around him in a way that leaves almost no room for error.
Mauigoa is expected to start at right guard as a rookie, and the team also added veteran Daniel Faalele in free agency. Jon Runyan Jr. is set at left guard next to center John Michael Schmitz, with Andrew Thomas at left tackle and Jermaine Eluemunor at right tackle. That leaves Neal squeezed into a crowded competition with free-agent additions and holdovers like Ezeudu and Jake Kubas.
The bigger issue is that the Giants already moved on from him once. They declined Neal’s fifth-year option worth roughly $16.7 million after the 2025 draft, a clear sign that the No. 7 pick from 2022 had not developed the way the team hoped.
The production tells the same story. As a rookie in 2022, Neal gave up 39 pressures and seven sacks on 453 pass-blocking snaps and posted a 44.1 overall PFF grade, one of the worst marks among qualified tackles in the league, according to PFF.
In 2023, he played only seven games before a December trip to injured reserve and finished with a 39.8 overall grade. In 2024, he barely saw the field after the Giants replaced and benched him.
The idea that 2025 could be his reset at guard never really got off the ground. Hamstring and back injuries piled up, and he also couldn’t beat veteran Greg Van Roten for the job. Neal never took a single regular-season snap at the new spot.
Season Role Games started PFF overall grade
2022 Right tackle (rookie) 13 44.1
2023 Right tackle 7 39.8
2025 Guard 0 Did not play
So the stakes are simple now. Neal came into the league as a franchise tackle and a top-10 investment. He’s back as a minimum-salary gamble, with the team that drafted him already having drafted what looks like his replacement before camp even began.
Harbaugh is banking on a turnaround. Neal has to make it happen fast, or the Giants may end up closing the book for good.
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