The Biggest Challenges Giants OL Evan Neal Faces in Transition to Guard Revealed

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The long-awaited position conversion of New York Giants offensive lineman Evan Neal is finally underway, as the team hopes to salvage their 2022 first-round pick’s career by pushing him inside after three mostly unproductive–and injury-plagued–seasons at right tackle.  

Neal, the seventh overall pick in the 2022 draft, has struggled to latch on at tackle in the NFL, allowing 98 pressures in three years while also being flagged 18 times.

This led the Giants to move Neal inside to guard, a spot that he was familiar with as Alabama’s starting left guard during the 2019 season.

Due to a lack of contact in practices, not much could be gleaned from Neal’s stint at guard, where in OTA No. 2, he played left guard with the second-team offense. 

And while many seem to think that Neal might find the move inside to be more beneficial given that there is less space he would have to worry about, Greg Van Roten, penciled in as the team’s starting right guard this season, said the notion about having less space with which to work is a misconception. 

“I've never played tackle in the NFL, so I can't speak to how hard that position is, but I played guard, and I played center, and I just know that inside, things happen faster,” Van Roten said when asked what the biggest transition might be for Neal in moving inside. 

“The guys are bigger, and there's a lot of moving parts. If a defense is static, it's easy to play guard, but they're not static. They're very dynamic. And that's probably one of the challenges that often goes under the radar: how quickly things can happen and how many things you need to be able to process in a short period.

“I think (former Giants center) Shaun O’Hara said (tackles) are kind of on the right side or left side of the highway, and they're kind of worried about what's going on over there. When you're in the middle, there's a lot more you have to take in in a short period, and it's not easy. There's not a lot of starting guards in the NFL for a reason.”

Van Roten also dismissed the notion that playing inside or in a phone booth, as some have characterized the position, isn’t what it used to be, given the types of athletes that now line up across from interior offensive linemen.

“Honestly, with the ability that you see that these defensive linemen these days, they're not these big fat slugs anymore,” he said. “They're very athletic, dynamic. You look at the young guy we drafted in the third round, Darius Alexander — he's a big dude, but he's very athletic. 

“And then you look at (defensive lineman) Dex (Lawrence) inside–that is not someone I would say that is I want in a phone booth. Yeah, (defensive linemen) are closer to you, but that doesn't mean that it's easier to block them.”

The shift toward more athletic defensive linemen t is a big reason why the market price for quality guards has blossomed, even though guards can usually pair up with the center to try to slow down defensive linemen.  

However, there is optimism that Neal, who has readily accepted the position switch, can find success.

“Evan's a smart guy,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “I know he's excited about the opportunity he has. He's a big man. He's got length–he's a little bit taller than I'd say traditional guards–but he's played it. He's been working hard this last month and a half.”

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