man if this neal dude steps up from one of the WORST tackles in
all of football to mid pack we will have legit line.....finally.....
Friday, June 9, 2023
How Bengals legend Willie Anderson is helping a young Giants tackle
By Jordan Raanan
ESPNNewYork.com
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. --
New York Giants right tackle
Evan Neal invited 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist Willie Anderson to New Jersey for a weekend of work in late March. This is how Neal was spending his first professional offseason: Trying to figure out answers after a difficult rookie season.
They sat in the lobby of Neal’s luxury New Jersey apartment complex devouring dinner and dissecting film from the first-round pick’s rookie year. It didn’t take long for Anderson, a former Pro Bowl right tackle who is now an offensive line coach, to know where to start.
“I saw that he was a left tackle trying to figure out playing right tackle,” said Anderson, who was a four-time first-team All Pro right tackle during his playing days with the
Cincinnati Bengals.
Neal had played left guard, right tackle and left tackle during a standout career at Alabama. He was penciled in as the starting right tackle the moment he was selected seventh overall in the 2022 NFL draft by the Giants.
In Anderson’s opinion, Neal still hadn’t completely made the adjustment.
“It’s like being a right-hand boxer, and now we’re going to turn your left hand into your dominant hand,” Anderson said. “That takes practice. A lot of times it’s not going to look as good. I can still punch a guy with my left hand, it’s just not going to feel as strong. That’s what I immediately saw. He was playing left tackle and trying to figure out, ‘How do I adjust getting my feet together, getting my hands corrected, getting in the right stance?’
“I think it will take shape this year.”
The Giants know their offensive line needs to be better. They are banking on a significant leap from Neal in Year 2, and they drafted center
John Michael Schmitz in the second round. Those are the two spots where they are hoping for significant improvement with All Pro
Andrew Thomas entrenched at left tackle and last year’s starters,
Ben Bredeson and
Mark Glowinski, the favorites to start at guard.
Right tackle was one of the spots where the Giants had problems. Neal had a pass block win rate of 81.1% last season. That ranked him 58 out of 64 qualifying tackles with 11 sacks allowed. He also finished 80 of 81 tackles with a 41.8 grade from Pro Football Focus.
Some outsiders had even suggested moving Neal inside to guard. The Giants have no such plans. They envision a day where Thomas and Neal are a dominant tackle duo.
In the meantime, Neal’s rookie year left a sour taste in his mouth and had him searching for ways to improve this offseason. He saw Anderson teaching and working with players on Instagram, and his agent, Damarius Bilbo of Klutch, set up a meeting, which came with a blessing from Giants offensive line coach Bobby Johnson.
That initial three-day workshop between Neal and Anderson produced at least one major change: They made his stance more compact, moving his back leg in to provide better balance and power.
“I first saw his stance and I said, ‘That stance can’t be comfortable going against certain kinds of rushers,’” Anderson said. “I asked him if he had a problem with these kinds of rushers, and he said, ‘Yes!’”
Anderson didn’t want to specify the rushers that gave Neal the most trouble in fear of giving away too much information. However, Neal’s worst game of the season came in a September loss to the
Dallas Cowboys when
DeMarcus Lawrence finished with three sacks.
His new stance is designed to help him get out quicker and have a more compact base that will allow him to move side to side, and forward and back, more efficiently.
“Working with Willie was cool,” Neal said. “Just gaining a lot of his knowledge, him being a Pro Bowl player, we were playing around with my stance, seeing what's comfortable, seeing what's not comfortable. The stance that I can be functional out of and explode out of and stuff like that.”
The two are scheduled to have another session in the coming weeks. The Giants are in the midst of OTAs and have their mandatory minicamp scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week before breaking for the summer.
Anderson and Johnson have spoken on multiple occasions, including at Ohio State’s Pro Day the afternoon before Neal and Anderson linked up. They’re all on the same page.
“I’d say with each player, there’s little things that you try to tweak and coach on,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “And it’s no different with Evan.”
Neal’s willingness to change makes this a very different situation from Ereck Flowers, who was resistant to change early in his Giants career after being a top-10 pick in 2015. It more closely resembles Thomas, who had a disastrous rookie year before turning it around midway through his second season.
“The great ones bust their *** to figure it out,” Anderson said. “For him, that stuff bothered him. It bothers him the way it bothered me [as a rookie], the way it bothered Andrew, because I know Andrew well too and I know what Andrew did to work himself back.
“That’s what Evan has a chance to be. You’ve got a chance to be [a] top duo. Two elite freaking tackles right there. He has the ability. Just give him time and patience to figure out that side of the ball.”
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Giants WR Sterling Shepard 'right on schedule' in comeback attempt
By Jordan Raanan
ESPN
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. --
New York Giants wide receiver
Sterling Shepard believes he's "right on schedule" in his recovery from a torn ACL, and his goal is to be ready for the start of the season.
Shepard has been running and working with trainers at organized team activities and Tuesday's minicamp after tearing the ACL in his left knee back in late September. That was just months after he returned from a torn Achilles tendon suffered the previous season.
The longest-tenured Giant appears to be moving well, running and cutting, in workouts.
"I'm right on schedule where I wanted to be, a little bit ahead. So that's always good," Shepard said. "I'm just trying to take it day by day and just focus on getting back to 100 percent."
Shepard, 30, had 13 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown before he crumpled to the ground with the noncontact injury in Week 3 of last season. He vowed not to have his career end on that note.
The Giants re-signed Shepard to a one-year deal earlier this offseason. In his mind, being ready for the Sept. 10 opener against the
Dallas Cowboys is not off the table.
"My goal is to be ready for the season, so whatever that takes is what I'm going to try to do, but I'm also not going to rush it," Shepard said. "You get to that time and I'm not feeling right, then that's just what it's going to be. But that is my goal, and just take it day by day like I said and try to be the best I can be that day."
Shepard returning to the field isn't the only important thing. He also needs to stay on it. That has not happened regularly in recent years.
Shepard has missed at least four games in each of the past four seasons. He has appeared in just 10 games over the past two years.
This time the Giants have at least covered their bases. They have a crowded wide receiver room with the additions of
Parris Campbell,
Jalin Hyatt,
Jamison Crowder and
Jeff Smith this offseason.
"Yeah, it's probably the biggest receiver group I've been a part of since I've been here, but that's what we wanted to bring in," Shepard said. "We wanted to bring in competition. Some guys run from competition, and some people don't. We're definitely going to see what we have because we have a lot of guys that can play some good ball.
"I love the fact that we added more playmakers. It's not just on one person to make all the plays. We've got a lot of guys that can do it."
Shepard was a second-round pick out of the University of Oklahoma in 2016. He has 362 catches for 4,038 yards and 22 receiving touchdowns with the Giants.
Returning for an eighth season to the only professional home he has known means something.
"This organization has been really good to me throughout my playing career, and some of the stuff that's happened over the years," Shepard said. "I'm grateful and thankful, and I try to give this organization everything I've got just for those reasons."
this year they play in Vegas and it's the same weekend I was there in 2021.
