Certain expectations come with being a top draft pick. However unfair or unjust it is, it’s what happens. When Joe Schoen and the New York Giants drafted Evan Neal seventh overall in the 2022 draft, the expectation was he’d be a bookend tackle opposite Andrew Thomas.
Three years later, and he’s been anything but. The former Alabama star lineman is an uncharacteristic miss from a Nick Saban-coached team. It truly looked like he had all the tools necessary to be the next great right tackle for the G-Men. Massive, athletic, powerful, and built with a high motor and strong work ethic, the odds he’d turn into a bust seemed microscopic.