Evan Neal NFL Draft Overview
Position: Offensive Tackle
Height: 6′-7 1/2″
Weight: 337 pounds
School: Alabama
Evan Neal 2022 NFL Draft Profile
After spending the past three seasons with the Alabama Crimson Tide, offensive tackle Evan Neal has decided to forego the remainder of his collegiate eligibility and declare for the 2022 NFL Draft. Neal is coming off yet another fantastic season, allowing just two sacks, six quarterback hits, and 11 hurries on 1,073 offensive snaps while working at left tackle.
Neal originally entered the college football world as a five-star recruit out of Florida. Signing with Alabama, Neal immediate stepped in and started at left guard. Appearing in 723 snaps, the true freshman allowed just one sack, three hits, and eight hurries on the season. Neal moved to right tackle in 2020, allowing just two sacks, one hit, and six hurries on 789 snaps.
Strengths
- An absolute monster of a man – nobody is going to beat him with just strength alone;
- Quick on his feet with the agility required to match speed rushers;
- Faced and dominated elite collegiate competition;
- Astonishingly quick first step for a man his size;
- Fantastic punch timing – not much to teach there;
- Positional versatility to play both tackle positions and guard;
- Plows over guys in the run game.
Weaknesses
- Can lose balance by reaching too early for oncoming rushers;
- Reportedly had trouble maintaining ideal playing weight;
- Doesn’t read stunts too well – processing speed needs to improve;
- Needs to incorporate lower body into run blocking – all upper body;
- A little slow to react off of the snap.
NFL Comparison: Eric Fisher
Teams With Need at Position: Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Chargers, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans
Projection: Top 5-10 pick
Bottom Line on Evan Neal
Evan Neal is a phenomenal football player that will immediately step in and start on just about any offensive line. The Alabama product is a certified freak of nature, weighing in at 6′-8″ and 337 pounds while knowing how to use every last ounce of his muscle. He’s stronger than just about any player in football and never loses to bull rushes, and he’s astonishingly quick on his feet, meaning that he can match speedier edge defenders. Once engaged against his defenders, Neal drives them into the ground and has the potential to be one of the best all-around tackles in the league. As an added bonus, Neal also possesses the positional versatility to play both tackle positions and guard, so he’ll always have an easy path into the lineup.
Neal is going to be a good starter from Day 1, but he has the chance to be elite if he cleans up a few of his flaws. Neal’s overwhelming strength was something of a curse in college, as he never needed to use his lower body to overpower his opponents. That’s not going to fly in the NFL, and Neal will need to learn to use his whole body. The good news is that this is a coachable flaw, and doing this should also help fix his balance issues.
Most of Neal’s other flaws are just nitpicks. There’s no such thing as a perfect NFL Draft propsect, but Evan Neal is pretty darn close. Any team that drafts him will be getting a Day 1 starter at one of the most important positions in football.
Main photo:
Embed from Getty Images
