Giants tackle Evan Neal strikes a humble tone in his first comments since Jan. 2024 ankle surgery

job in fact the job isn't waiting there for you anymore whatever role that the team has for me I'm going to embrace it um so whether that's starting not starting I'm here to contribute to the team and I'm going to do everything in my power to do so you're a high level contributor though and uh be you know high level athlete high level competitor high draft pick I'm sure you feel like you deserve to be starting though I mean I'm not old anything and I can't feel like I deserve anything I mean all I want is what I look for are you playing catchup do you feel you're catching since everybody's got a three week start I mean that's not something that I think about because that's not something that I can control I can just control like how I dress every day Evan was part of it in the in the react process that you'd feel good one day but then the next day it didn't feel right and you kind of kind of roll that roller coaster a little bit yeah it's kind of tricky especially with it you know being a bone you can't really do anything you know to them other than just let it heal so you know some days I go out and it'll feel really good you know other days you not as good so um but I feel like I've been feeling as of lately you know just consistent enough to be able to go back out there and contribute to the team so that's where I'm at what happened in the spring cuz it looked like you were progressing and then they shut you down yeah I mean like I said um in the spring it was one of those things like it decided to back off me because I was having more days where it wasn't feel feeling well than days and it was feeling good so they just kind of decided to just back up off me what was the diagnosis what what did you have to come back from I had to come back from ankle are you are you surprised it took this long because generally in ankle surgery those of us who don't play football think it's going to be a fairly Swift recovery and and yours was mine everybody's different I'm a large man I put a lot of pressure and a lot of weight on my ankle U everybody's body's different I mean nothing's natural about the surgery you know getting cut open so your body's going to have a different response there C model in terms of you know when a player is going to be back and when he's not going to be back I can that some but what's the process just been like to deal with emotionally and trying to navigate I mean it's another thing I'm going to have to overcome I mean obviously that's not something that you know I wanted to happen I mean I'm just not going to worry about the things that are out of my control you know but what I can control is how I approach every day uh continuing to get healthy contining to refine my skills and do everything that I can to contribute to the Team One Way or Another can you work like during an offseason can you work on the mental aspect of handling the pressure of playing in this market the ups and downs is that anything that you put time into like maybe how you approach paying attention to certain things or I mean in this business in this line of working especially in this city pressure is going to be there but I mean that's not something that you know I think about because that's not something that I create so at the end of the day like I'm just going to focus on you know controlling what I can control my attitude uh you know how I approach the game you know going out there playing as well as I can so to me you know the pressure really doesn't exist when you got shut down or you were told you needed that surgery and it was a fracture what were the emotions at that point cuz I'm sure you were looking to try to get back on the field to put better tape on I just take us back to that I mean like I said I mean it definitely kind of like probably by left field I mean really you know everybody cuz it was something that initially you know kind of wasn't seen on the um initial scan but I just knew it was going to be another thing that I was going to have to overcome I mean that was something that was out of my control so I was just going to have to deal with the best with that I new how at the time surgery something to reattach something or clean up loose particles or how would they how do they describe it to you I'm not a doctor so I can't really describe it in depth um I know I got cut open and I'm in the suit for it so Andrew's uh career took off when his ankle got right like he had the two surgeries and then it took off did have you talked to him about that and do you use that as kind of an encouraging blueprint I mean not so much about his you know career taking on like that after the surgery but I do talk to him you know all the time just in terms of like um you know how he got his ankle back healthy some of the things that he would do and um you know maybe during his rehab process to go with some of the you know hurdles or the obstacles that um you know he faced and you know he give me some of the best Insight that he could bad I was going to say bad timing is bad timing but it's halfway through your rookie contract so do you how do you look at how would you describe your first two years and do you look at this as a pivotal point in your career I mean yeah it's a big year for me I mean I'm not going to sit here and um act like it's not but at the end of the day you know the past two years um you know they weren't perfect by any means but you know I feel like um they were solid I mean they definitely weren't you know what you know I wanted them to be but a lot of things that happen were just out of my control so just like the future you know it's out of my control I can only control the present you know and how I approach every single day and uh that'll be a big indication of my future when Joe Shane spoke late in the season he said he needs to play better toward that only what was your reaction when you heard him say that that's his opinion I mean that's his job to evaluate the players and um you know if he thinks like I need to play better then I mean i' be the first person to tell myself that I need to play better so it really don't matter whether it come out Jo's mouth or anybody's all that know I'm always going to be you know the harshest CRI on myself so need to play better yeah I need to play you should you do anything if they said play guard could you play guard I mean like I said whatever role that I'm as to doing the team going to embrace you know to the best of my abilities thanks