It's one thing to try and resurrect a player's career; it's another to hold onto him one season too long. And that could be what's looming for the New York Giants and first-round bust, Evan Neal.
Neal, the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft, has been a complete failure at offensive tackle so far through three seasons, forcing a position switch to guard in 2025.
He was supposed to kick inside last year, but an injury to Andrew Thomas forced New York to keep Neal on the edge. The results were... bad.
Indeed, Neal's 61.2 grade from Pro Football Focus in 2024 was the best of his career -- he scored a 39.8 (2023) and a 41.8 (2022) in his previous two seasons -- but he still ranked 55th among offensive tackles with at least 400 snaps last season.
Still, offensive linemen are really hard to find, and a player like Neal, who has that first-round pedigree, could have value for the Giants on the trade market.
READ: Giants predicted to have award-winning rookie in 2025
In fact, Neal was named as the one player on New York's roster whom they should trade before the 2025 season kicks off.
"Maybe Neal will pull a Mekhi Becton and blossom after kicking inside," Bleacher Report's Gary Davenport wrote. "But if he doesn’t, Big Blue should look to flip the contract-year lineman to a team that believes it can salvage Neal’s career."
While it feels like a stretch to project Neal to have a breakout season after plenty of evidence suggesting he's a lost cause, Becton is a great example of what a position change can do for an offensive lineman, especially guys who are on the bigger side of the position group.
Becton was a failed offensive tackle with the New York Jets; he thrived as an interior player with the Philadelphia Eagles. The bumpers that guards can rely on, in many ways, eliminate outside speed as a way to lose a rep. And if Neal can settle in as a space-eating power player, maybe we have yet to see the best of him.
This suggests that the New York Giants should take a wait-and-see approach with Neal rather than shipping him off before getting a complete evaluation of him at guard. Let's face it: the Giants wouldn't get much in a trade for him anyway.
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