The New York Giants have seen growth in many of the players they have drafted over the past few seasons. For instance, left tackle Andrew Thomas went from looking lost to a Pro Bowl player.
Now, the team is looking for his counterpart at right tackle, Evan Neal, to take the same path.
Offensive line coach Bobby Johnson recently told the Everything New York Giants Podcast that Neal was simply going through too many new things as a rookie last year plus dealing with an injury.
Johnson sees Neal improving in his second season now that he has much-needed NFL snaps under his belt. One major adjustment will be a change in stance to give Neal more fluidity and quickness.
“Evan is an extremely hard worker. He loves working at football. He works at it all year round. He hunts up the best people he can work with,” Johnson told Arianna.
“There were some things from a technical standpoint last year — I felt like his stance was ‘bunched up’ last year. I said, ‘Hey, you’re a big man. You’re wasting a lot of motion getting in and out of your stance. Let’s find a stance that’s a little more comfortable for you.’
“Last year we were trying to dress it but there were so many other bigger picture things that we need to attack… he was functional but we can make it better.”
Johnson said the offensive line as a whole is ready to take a leap in his second season as coach.
“We only have three players that are older than 26 out of the 15,” said Johnson. “It’s a young room. There is a lot of potential there; a lot of room for growth. That should give people some excitement. I know I get excited every time I go in the room. I see these guys getting better every day.”
Johnson stated that the offensive line is a developmental position that takes time to cultivate.
“Fans want to see it faster. They want to see it now. They want the line to be Amazon Prime. They want to order it and they want it to get here in an hour,” he said.
Johnson says in Year 2, he will push the group ‘faster’ as there is no learning curve any longer.
