The horrendous offseason for NY Giants right tackle Evan Neal simply won’t improve. The former No. 7 overall pick went down with an ankle injury last season, which required him to have surgery. Neal was working out on his own during the spring program, but the team held him back from going full throttle.

The hope there was he’d be ready for training camp, which wasn’t the case. Brian Daboll said that Neal won’t be participating in the joint practices with the Lions, and it’s safe it say he won’t be playing in the first preseason game either. When asked when Neal will be ready to suit up and start practicing again, Daboll didn’t give us much of anything to work with. He was quite vague:

Brian Daboll was quite vague when asked about Evan Neal’s status

The third-year Giants head coach pretty much said Neal is rehabbing and that when he’s ready, he’ll be back out there. Daboll then said he didn’t want to go into the particulars in terms of his recovery, which has people believing maybe there’s something else going on with the young tackle.

Neal is entering Year 3 with the Giants – his first two campaigns with Big Blue have not gone according to plan. He has struggled immensely to live up to his first-round hype. As things stand, it’s looking like Jermaine Eluemunor will be the Week 1 starter at right tackle.

He’s able to move to the outside with Greg Van Roten being signed. Van Roten figures to be in the hunt to start at right guard, though he’s been lining up at center with John Michael Schmitz (shoulder) out for now due to injury.

The hope is that Schmitz will be ready to rock for the season-opener vs. the Vikings. With Neal, though, it’s starting to feel like a long shot that he’ll be good to go to take on Minnesota come Week 1. This ankle injury is proving to be much worse than anyone could have expected.