Giants remain committed to Evan Neal at right tackle: ‘He can play’

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen met with the media on Monday to address the open issues about his 4-8 football team.

One of the key areas of discussion, as always, was the offensive line which the Giants have been mixing and matching all season due to another unusually high spate of injuries.

Through the first 12 weeks of the season, the Giants have only one lineman who has started all 12 games — Ben Bredeson. He has played on 88 percent of the offensive snaps this season.

No one else is even close — John Michael Schmitz is next at 64 percent followed by Evan Neal (59), Justin Pugh (57) and Mark Glowinski (55).

All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas has only played only 32 percent of the snaps this year after missing seven games with a hamstring injury.

It’s the Giants’ other former first-round tackle, Neal, that has fans and pundits concerned, however. He has missed five games due to various injuries in 2023 and the second-year right tackle cannot seem to get any traction to take the next step in his professional career.

There is a question of whether Neal can play tackle at the NFL level. Schoen nixed the idea of moving Neal to guard.

“I went back and watched the Alabama stuff; the kid can play. We just got to get him to be more consistent,” Schoen told reporters. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in Evan, he’s a hard worker. It’s killing him right now to be out there. He’s missing some valuable reps in year two, but as soon as he’s healthy, he’s scratching and clawing to get back. We are looking forward to getting him back there, but he knows there is some things he can do better and that’s what we expect from him.

“Evan got off to a really good camp, had a concussion, missed a couple of weeks, came back, and needs to play better. Evan needs to play better. He knows that. Look forward to getting him back here when he’s healthy, but I think he’d admit there’s some things that he can do better, and we look forward to him continuing to improve.”

Head coach Brian Daboll was asked if Neal, who missed his second straight game with an ankle injury, would play again this year.

“Do I know? Not for certain but I think he’s getting better so I’m hopeful,” Daboll said in his session on Monday before Schoen spoke. “This is stuff we’ll all talk about when he’s ready to play. I don’t think he’s ready to play quite yet but he’s getting there.”

In Neal’s absence, Tyre Phillips has taken most of the offensive snaps but has been largely inconsistent.