4 NY Giants who must step their game up vs. Dallas

3. Offensive lineman Evan Neal

All eyes will be on right tackle Evan Neal in 2023, who is poised to make big strides in his second NFL season. Throughout the preseason, the former first-round pick has shown flashes of improvement and even showed off a body transformation that turned plenty of heads this spring.

Last season, according to Pro Football Focus, Neal allowed seven sacks in 738 snaps played, rated as the seventh most of all linemen. Let's just say it wasn't the rookie campaign to brag about for the No. 7 overall selection. This left many Giants fans concerned as expectations were high for the Alabama lineman to succeed in Year 1.

However, this isn't the first time that the Giants experienced something like this. In 2020, as a rookie, left tackle Andrew Thomas struggled tremendously, allowing 57 pressures and 10 sacks. But, the 2020 fourth overall pick quickly made improvements.

Thomas is now considered one of the best linemen in the league. In fact, the G-Men recently signed the veteran left tackle to a well-deserved five-year, $117.5 million contract extension after his impressive 2022 campaign. The hope is that Neal can progress similarly to Thomas over the last two seasons. He'll have quite the test against an impressive Dallas pass-rush on Sunday.