This week, the New York Giants signed left tackle Andrew Thomas, who has gone from perplexed rookie in 2020 to one of the top players at his position, to a long-term deal that will lock him up in blue until the end of the decade.
The Giants’ right tackle, 2022 first-round pick, Evan Neal, is seeking to do the same. Neal went through some struggles as a rookie last year and wants to take the same type of jump as Thomas and fulfill his promise.
“I feel very comfortable. I felt great out there the past two days,” Neal told reporters via Zoom on Friday. “Just going to use the rest of camp to continue to hone in on those skills, just make small improvements every single day. I feel like I am never going to be a finished product, I am just going to take each day to get better and better.”
He knows he has a ways to go to get to Thomas’ level and is not shy in saying it.
“Andrew Thomas is himself and I am Evan Neal,” he said. “I’m just going to focus on being the best Evan Neal that I can be. Andrew is a great player and he’s a great role model for me as well. I’m just going to continue to get better every single day and control what I can control.”
Like every second-year player in this business, Neal is no longer a bright-eyed rookie. He knows the drill now and is ready to take the next step as a professional. A lot of that comes in the form of conditioning and, yes, nutrition.
Neal revealed he lost some weight over the offseason and even hired a personal chef to help him do that and replace fat with muscle.
“Probably (down) about 10 or 15 pounds. I definitely put on more muscle and got more lean,” Neal revealed. “I weighed in whenever we got here for training camp, I was 345. My final weight was 353, so I shed a few pounds, but I put on a lot more muscle for sure.
“I’ve always trained extremely hard but one thing I can say is I was a lot more conscious about my diet,” he added. “I hired a chef, and it was really helpful in terms of just what I was putting in my body. Just having meals there for me so that way I didn’t have to think about eating, it was already there ready to go for me so that was a big help.
Neal appears to be ahead of the curve when it comes to learning the ropes about NFL success.
Took me until year 4 to do this. That’s big for his game. I think he takes a bit jump this year. Year two is when right tackle started to feel more natural.
— Justin Pugh (@JustinPugh) July 28, 2023
The Alabama product is not looking backwards this summer. It’s all about the present and the future.
“Last year was last year, man. I’m really focused on the 2023 season,” he said. “I did feel like it made it more challenging for me because I had never got hurt during the season and had to play through it. So, I definitely feel like that was a factor but I’m not going to make any excuses. That’s the past, we are in the present now.”
