Evan
Neal.
Evan
Neal.
Alabama· 6'7"· 350 lb
"Everything about the profile said safe — the size, the Alabama pedigree, 39 SEC starts. Four years later Neal is the cautionary tale of the class: a top-ten tackle who never learned to pass protect."Pre-draft read
Neal was a people-mover built for the power game, a 6-7, 350-pound tackle who started at guard as a freshman before kicking outside. The base trait is raw displacement: once his hands land inside your frame the rep is over, and his down blocks and drive blocks created genuine movement in Alabama's gap schemes.
The secondary trait is surprising range for the mass. He pulls and climbs to the second level well enough that the Tide ran behind him on key downs, and his pass set is a patient kick-slide that relies on length to close the edge. The cap is body control against speed: quick inside counters and low-to-the-ground rushers could get him overextended. The signature is overwhelming size with functional feet.
Gap/power run scheme that lets him fire out and displace, with a pass game that gets the ball out on schedule and gives him help against speed
Year 1: starting right tackle with tight-end chips against elite speed rushers. Ceiling: decade-long power tackle who anchors a downhill run game.
A wide-zone or movement-heavy scheme that asks him to reach and run in space, or any pass-first offense that leaves him on an island against bend rushers fifty snaps a game.
New York needed exactly what he was billed to be, but the scheme could not hide his lateral limitations once injuries and weight crept in.
Alabama OT Evan Neal Quick Clip Highlights
Cut-up of his Alabama tape showing the power game and movement at 350 pounds.
Evan Neal, OT, Alabama - 2021 Highlight Video | Outland Award Semi Finalist
Junior-season left tackle reel from his consensus All-American campaign.
6-7, 360 pound Evan Neal has crazy athleticism
Short reel focused on the rare movement ability that made him a top-ten pick.
Neal entered the 2022 class as the most physically imposing offensive lineman in college football and one of its most proven. A former five-star from IMG Academy, he started at left guard as a true freshman on a playoff team, moved to right tackle in 2020 and took over the left side in 2021, earning consensus All-American honors, first-team All-SEC and a team captaincy on a 13-2 Alabama team that played for the national title.
The evaluation was about translation, not talent. At his listed 6-7 and 350 pounds he erased power rushers on tape, and his freshman-to-junior versatility across three spots gave clubs flexibility. The flags were foot speed against elite bend and a frame that needed weight management; he declined to run the forty at the combine and at his pro day, telling teams to watch the tape, which kept the athletic question alive without ever answering it.
Boards treated him as a near-lock for the top ten, with a segment of the league viewing him as a candidate for the first overall pick before Jacksonville went defense. The Giants, desperate for tackle help opposite Andrew Thomas, took him at No. 7 and installed him as their opening-day right tackle — a bet that the biggest body in the class could be a decade-long bookend.
- 01
Overwhelming size and power
At 6-7 and roughly 350 pounds he displaces defenders in the run game, and once his hands latch inside, the rep is effectively finished.
- 02
Three-position versatility
He started at left guard as a freshman, right tackle as a sophomore and left tackle as a junior, giving a line coach flexibility from day one.
- 03
Proven against elite competition
He held up against SEC edge talent weekly and was a consensus All-American and permanent team captain on a national finalist in 2021.
- 04
Movement skills for the mass
Alabama pulled him and climbed him to linebackers regularly, and his patient pass set with long arms closes the edge against most rushers.
- 05
Durability and experience
Thirty-nine starts in three seasons at Alabama with no meaningful injury history, a heavy résumé for a junior entering the draft.
- 01
Foot speed against bend
Low-to-the-ground speed rushers could stress his outside shoulder, and his kick-slide gets heavy when he has to redirect late.
- 02
Weight management
Playing near or above 350 pounds raises conditioning questions, and his balance and stamina wobble on extended drives at that mass.
- 03
Unanswered athletic testing
He declined to run at the combine and his pro day, so teams drafted the movement profile on tape rather than verified numbers.
- 04
Pad level in pass protection
His height works against him when rushers win the leverage battle early, and he gives up his chest more than a top-ten tackle should.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— No athletic data recorded
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Alabama | 13 |
| 2020 | Alabama | 12 |
| 2021 | Alabama | 14 |
| Career | — | 39 |
Games and starts verified via Alabama bio and StatMuse (39 career starts). No official pancake or pressure-allowed splits were published for any season, so none are reported rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Huge Alabama right tackle whose size produced early starts but whose feet and conditioning eventually pushed him to guard and then off rosters.
The best-case version: a massive tackle whose middling athleticism is covered by technique, length and a power run game, turning into a multi-time Pro Bowler.
Top-ten tackle who never solved NFL edge speed, washed out at tackle within four years and salvaged a career only by moving inside.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Neal has been a starting offensive tackle for the New York Giants for two seasons. He has faced significant challenges with consistency and injuries during his early career.
The translation problems showed up immediately. As a rookie in 2022 Neal started 13 games at right tackle and struggled with speed around the edge, and the Giants made the playoffs in spite of their right side, not because of it. Year two unraveled: an ankle injury limited him to seven starts in 2023, and when he played the protection was shaky enough that he took public accountability for it. He returned in 2024 for nine games with seven starts, again at right tackle, again without locking the job down.
By 2025 the bookend bet was effectively over. Neal lost the starting right tackle job, spent camp working at guard and appeared in one game with no starts through the early season, buried behind a rebuilt line. The honest verdict: he is one of the clearest misses of the 2022 top ten — a player whose college power never overcame NFL edge speed, and whose body never settled at a playable weight. The traits that made him a near top-five lock were real; the feet and conditioning that position demanded were not.
Data note: from Chicago