Believed to be dealing with a sprained left ankle, Evan Neal continued to see his potential return pushed again. The Giants have since ended the second-year sort out’s season, putting him on IR over the weekend. This amounted to a misplaced yr for the top-10 decide.
Extra has come to gentle on why Neal missed the second half of the season. The Giants’ beginning proper sort out suffered a fractured ankle, Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News reports. Brian Daboll alluded to a process probably being obligatory, and Leonard confirms surgical procedure is on faucet.
Neal has struggled to justify the Giants’ No. 7 total funding, and he missed time earlier than this ankle illness shut him down in early November. The Giants aren’t anticipated to consider sliding Neal inside to guard, regardless of the Alabama alum having performed there at factors in school. However the workforce has seen its Andrew Thomas bookend associate have a tricky go as an NFL RT.
It’s unclear when Neal’s prognosis modified from a sprain to a fracture, Leonard provides, however the up to date harm explains why Neal — who had resumed training on a facet discipline following the Nov. 5 harm — was by no means in a position to return to motion. He ends his second season having performed in simply seven video games.
The Giants have encountered a couple of misses at proper sort out since Tremendous Bowl-era bastion Kareem McKenzie‘s 2012 exit. First-rounder Justin Pugh couldn’t stick on the place, being moved to protect throughout his first New York stint, and free agent Geoff Schwartz battled accidents throughout his Large Apple keep. Seventh-rounder-turned-starter Bobby Hart finally proved overmatched, and Dave Gettleman lower him on his first day as GM. Gettleman hit massive on Thomas however was not capable of finding a right-edge blocker. After switching Nate Solder to RT in 2021, the Giants used the second of their two 2022 first-rounders on Neal. However he has disenchanted up to now.
Professional Soccer Focus rated Neal as this season’s second-worst sort out. That got here after the superior metrics web site positioned in the identical spot (eightieth out of 81 certified tackles) final yr. It is going to be fascinating to see if the Giants try so as to add a veteran to compete with Neal, however offensive line coach Bobby Johnson stated (via The Athletic’s Dan Duggan) it stays too quickly to completely consider the younger blocker. That time is quick approaching, nonetheless, because the Giants might want to see important enchancment from Neal to keep away from proper sort out being a high precedence come 2025.