Filed under: Evan Neal — yes, Evan Neal — was Giants’ highest-graded offensive player vs. Carolina Panthers A few bright lights in an otherwise dismal performance By Anthony Del Genio Nov 11, 2024, 2:17pm EST Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images We’re now into the looking-toward-2025 stage of the New York Giants’ 2024 season. Let’s see which players are making a case to stick around and which are likely to be elsewhere next year after the Giants’ embarrassing 20-17 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers. Offense PFF grades Courtesy of Pro Football Focus You may want to take a screenshot of this for your archives – a game in which the Giants’ starting offensive line earned five of the six highest offensive grades (the only non-OL grade among them being blocking tight end Chris Manhertz), with the highest being … Evan Neal. Before you get too excited, Neal’s 80.6 grade, the highest of his Giants’ tenure, was largely due to his run blocking (92.4), which was his calling card at Alabama but had only rarely been seen in the NFL. His pass blocking grade was only 49.4, though (more on that below). The other four offensive line starters all graded above average or not far from it in both pass and run blocking. Here’s more detail: Courtesy of Pro Football Focus Neal’s low pass blocking grade doesn’t seem consistent with the fact that he only allowed one pressure and no quarterback hits or sacks in more than pass-blocking attempts. Likely explanations are that he (a) was sometimes getting help from Manhertz and/or (b) lost his block but it did not affect the play because Jones rolled out in the opposite direction or got the ball out fast enough not to be pressured. PFF’s pass block grade measures only whether your man beats your block faster or slower than is normal, not what the result is after you’re beaten. Jermaine Eluemunor, playing on the left side for the first time this season, had a bit of a rough go, surrendering a sack (the infamous flea flicker play), two hits, and four hurries, but overall his pass blocking was only slightly below average. The other three offensive linemen were all above average in pass blocking (the third game in a row for Greg Van Roten). You may be surprised to see Daniel Jones with an average (65.7) overall grade, a few points lower for passing. I was. This is what I suspect is one weakness of PFF grades. To my knowledge they grade how well a QB throws the ball, and not the decisions made or the timing. If you get the ball anywhere near where the receiver can catch it, you get an average grade, and that apparently was the grader’s assessment of much of his play. His two sacks were considered the offensive line’s responsibility, when in reality he took his time setting and winding up to throw on the flea flicker when an elite QB would have sensed the pressure and released the ball more quickly. Somehow he was not charged with a batted pass…maybe you can’t give a batted pass and an interception on the same play? I believe PFF doesn’t grade you down for not seeing an open receiver downfield and throwing short instead, which is a chronic problem for him. There really wasn’t much to say about the rest of the offense, every member of which got an average or slightly below average grade, which seems about right. The one exception worth noting is Tyrone Tracy, the lowest-graded offensive player at 49.3. Tracy deserved better than the very average 63.7 run grade that he was given; I thought he did a really nice job making his way through the defensive line on several of his runs, and on the cutback that sprang him for his 32-yard touchdown. A drop, an allowed interception (the pass was behind him but he still should have caught the ball), and the crucial fumble doomed him, though. Snap counts As usual, Daniel Jones and all five offensive line starters played the entire game; the only difference was that Neal was one of those starters. With Darius Slayton out, the usage of wide receivers was a little different than in previous games. Malik Nabers played most snaps but missed a few when he went off the field to check for a possible concussion. The big difference was Jalin Hyatt getting a majority of snaps as WR2, while Wan’Dale Robinson played his usual roughly two-thirds of snaps. Isaiah Hodgins played 23 snaps, similar to the action he saw in the only two other games he’s played this season. Theo Johnson played his now usual great majority of the snaps, with Chris Manhertz playing about a third of the time and Daniel Bellinger basically playing the snaps Johnson did not. Overall the usage suggests a roughly two-thirds/one-third deployment of 11 vs. 12 personnel. Tracy as has become the norm was out there for most offensive snaps, with Devin Singletary second, but the Giants had two running backs on the field for a few plays. Defense PFF grades Courtesy of Pro Football Focus The defensive performance was a mix of really good performances by some players combined with really bad performances by others, with relatively few in the middle: After a poor game last week, Andru Phillips returned to his usual excellent form yesterday, with an overall 88.2 grade (90.0 in coverage). He gave up three receptions in five targets, which doesn’t sound special…until you realize that the total yardage yielded was 6 yards. He had four tackles and one missed tackle, but all his tackles were “stops” (running plays judged by PFF to be fails for the offense). For the season, Phillips is PFF’s highest-graded CB in overall defense among players who have played at least 20% of snaps. Elsewhere in the secondary, Cor’Dale Flott also had a very good game (77.8), allowing no receptions in three targets. Deonte Banks had a below average