Evan Neal’s Giants comeback is looking like a dead end, and training camp just made that clearer.
The former first-round tackle is now working at right guard, but that position change hasn’t turned into a real path back into the lineup. According to Giants insider Dan Duggan, Neal is stuck deep on the depth chart and not making much of a case for himself.
“Nothing to report. He's been glued to the third team at RG (although he did sneak in for a few snaps with the 2's today in the walk-through) and the 3's don't get many reps. Hard to see how he could make a real push for a spot”
That update lands like the final note in a story the Giants have been trying to rewrite for a while.
New York already declined Neal’s fifth-year option, which should have been the clean break after a rough run in East Rutherford. Instead, the Giants brought him back on a one-year, prove-it deal under new head coach John Harbaugh, a move that stood out as one of the offseason’s strangest gambles. Neal stayed, too, either because he still believes Harbaugh can rescue his career or because no one else around the league was willing to take the swing.
The original vision for Neal was straightforward enough. The Giants drafted the 6-foot-7, 340-pound Alabama lineman to be the long-term answer on the right side opposite Andrew Thomas, with the hope that two former SEC standouts would help power the offense into a better era.
That never came together. Thomas held up his end.
Neal didn’t.
Since arriving in North Jersey, Neal has struggled to handle NFL speed, despite the kind of size and athletic profile that should have made him a rare weapon up front. The footwork never quite settled.
The lateral movement never really clicked. Injuries added another layer to the mess.
For a brief moment, Harbaugh’s decision to bring him back made it seem like there might be one last chance to salvage something here. Harbaugh has a track record of getting production out of linemen, including players other teams overlooked. But this time, the reset hasn’t changed much.
At this point, the Neal situation looks less like a competition and more like a formality. The Giants gave him another shot, tried the position switch, and even that has only led to third-team reps and a handful of snaps with the twos in a walk-through.
Sometimes the fresh start doesn’t create new possibilities. Sometimes it just confirms the old ones.
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