A midseason ankle injury in 2023 moved Evan Neal out of the Giants’ starting lineup, and the former top-10 pick’s hopes of regaining his starting right tackle job did not produce a serious charge last summer. As a result, the Giants admitted partial defeat on their former No. 7 overall investment by greenlighting a much-rumored position change.
Neal is now a guard, and he took plenty of reps inside during the team’s offseason program — which wrapped this week. Although the Giants could well use the same starting five O-linemen they did in 2024, Neal is expected to be heard from during final training camp on a rookie contract.
The Giants re-signed Greg Van Roten, giving him a slight pay bump (one year, $3.25MM) to return. But the journeyman guard is heading into an age-35 season. A scenario in which the team’s primary 2024 right guard serves as Neal insurance has also emerged. Neal took plenty of reps at left guard during the offseason program, per The Athletic’s Dan Duggan, as the team managed Jon Runyan Jr.‘s return from two ankle surgeries. Once Runyan returns, the LG job is his. Van Roten’s RG job, however, should be considered in play for Neal, Duggan adds.
Giving Neal extensive work opens the door to the Giants preferring him to win the right guard gig, with Van Roten — who received $2.45MM guaranteed — in place in case the Alabama alum cannot stick the landing on his position change. Such aims have not reached desired conclusions for the Giants in the past, however. The team had hoped 2022 third-round pick Joshua Ezeudu would win a starting guard job in 2023, but that did not take place. (Ezeudu remains on Big Blue’s roster as a backup option, but O-line drafting has not been this regime’s forte.) Neal fared poorly as a right tackle and brought injury risk during his first three seasons, leading to the team predictably declining his $16.69MM fifth-year option.
Van Roten started all 17 games for the Giants last season and the Raiders in 2023. The Giants made the interesting move of importing the right side of the 2023 Raiders’ O-line last year, signing both Eluemunor and Van Roten. The latter, however, did not arrive until training camp — when it became clear Neal’s route back to RT had stalled. Pro Football Focus assigned Van Roten a mid-pack grade among guard regulars (42nd) in 2024.
Neal returned to the lineup at right tackle during the second half of last season, as the Giants kicked Eluemunor to LT as a belated post-Andrew Thomas solution. PFF graded Neal 58th (out of 81 qualified options) at tackle last year. That marked a step up from 2022 and ’23, when the advanced metrics site viewed Neal as the NFL’s second-worst tackle. Thomas (once he returns from Lisfranc surgery) and Eluemunor are entrenched at tackle, and James Hudson is now the swingman. Neal is returning to a position he has not played since his freshman year at Alabama; he was a 13-game RG starter for the Crimson Tide in 2019. Some viewed guard as his eventual destination, though the Giants resisted this position change for years.
As the Giants attempt to make the starter-to-bullpen-like Neal switch, they may also be readying Van Roten for potential swing duty. The 2012 UDFA, who stopped through the CFL for two seasons, took some first-string center reps during minicamp, Duggan notes in a separate piece. Mostly a guard as a pro, Van Roten took 138 center snaps last season and logged 159 there for the 2022 Raiders. Former second-round pick John Michael Schmitz has not established himself as a reliable presence just yet. If Neal supplants Van Roten at RG, the latter would stand to be the first option to replace Schmitz — PFF’s 36th- and 28th-ranked center, respectively, in 2023 and ’24 — falters this year.
Brian Daboll said (via the New York Post’s Zach Braziller) Neal has transitioned well inside thus far, though O-line competitions do not truly take shape until pads come on in training camp. This will be a storyline to follow in New York, as Braziller adds the Giants hope a Mekhi Becton– or Ereck Flowers-like rejuvenation at guard can commence. Both players earned themselves $10MM-per-year contracts after guard conversions. After a poor tackle career, Neal looks to have a big opportunity to boost his value ahead of a 2026 free agency bid.