Giants right tackle Evan Neal had a “Welcome to the NFL” moment in Week Three of the 2022 season.
The first-round pick was tasked with trying to block Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence for much of the matchup of divisional rivals and things did not go the rookie’s way. Lawrence had three sacks in a 23-16 Cowboys win and Neal didn’t get a chance to show he learned from the rough outing because he missed the rematch in Dallas with a knee injury.
Neal said this week that he is “grateful” for what happened last season because you “want to be able to learn from your mistakes” and he’ll get a chance to show he’s done that when Dallas pays a visit to MetLife Stadium on Sunday night.
“Right out the jump it’s a divisional opponent, so that’s always good,” Neal said, via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. “I’m excited to get another shot at those guys. I feel like I showed how far I came in a bunch of other games last year — not just DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. That just so happened to be my roughest game last year, but I’m just going to focus on executing the game plan and helping my team win.”
The Giants saw left tackle Andrew Thomas, a 2020 first-round pick, make major strides after a shaky first season and getting the same from Neal this year would be a good step toward repeating last season’s trip to the postseason.