In preparation for his second NFL season with the New York Giants, former Alabama All-American Evan Neal got some help from the other side of the Iron Bowl.

Neal received input from former Auburn standout Willie Anderson.

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The seventh selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, Neal stepped into the Giants’ starting lineup at right offensive tackle as a rookie. The 10th choice in the 1996 draft, Anderson was one of the NFL’s best right tackles during his 13 seasons. A Pro Bowler annually from 2003 through 2006 for the Cincinnati Bengals, Anderson also was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The former Vigor High School star has been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the past two years.

“Working with Willie was cool,” Neal said on Wednesday. “Just gaining a lot of his knowledge, him being a Pro Bowl player. We were playing around with my stance, seeing what’s comfortable, seeing what’s not comfortable — the stance that I can be functional out of and explode out of and stuff like that. …

“He came up here. We worked for a few days, watched film, got on the field, worked some different technique things. We have dialogue, we keep in contact, we keep in touch with each other, talk ball. Not everything has to be physical.”

Neal said working on his stance with Anderson was “trying something new, just seeing how I can get better.”

“I feel comfortable,” Neal said. “But with anything, you want to refine it to the point where you get better results out of it. It wasn’t the fact that I was uncomfortable. I was analyzing my game, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe if I tweak this part of my stance, maybe I’ll be able to get to my pass set quicker or maybe I’ll be more balanced whenever I take my pass sets. Really, it’s just a refining type of thing. …

“Like I said, just seeing, whether I’m widening out my base or narrowing it or just seeing what’s comfortable. You’ve got to be able to be functional in your stance and be able to move efficiently out of your stance. That’s what we were trying to find, find a place that I’m quick out of, that’s comfortable for me, a stance that I can get in and repeat rep after rep after rep.”

At Alabama, Neal played left guard in 2019, right tackle in 2020 and left tackle in 2021, when he was a consensus All-American. With Andrew Thomas, the fourth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, at left tackle, New York moved Neal back to right tackle.

“Going from a left-handed stance to a right-handed stance, thankfully I’d done it before,” Neal said. “I played three different positions at Alabama. It wasn’t that big of a deal. The main thing is I feel like it’s your hip alignments, stuff like that — just making sure that my hips get back adjusted to the right side. That’s the biggest thing.”

Neal started 13 regular-season and two playoff games for the Giants as a rookie. A knee injury caused him to miss four games in the middle of the season. He played 861 snaps for the offense that ranked 16th in points and 18th in yards among the NFL’s 32 teams in 2022. Neal was charged with allowing seven sacks, and he was responsible for six accepted penalties – all false starts.

“My rookie year, I learned a lot,” Neal said. “Gained a lot of experience. Proud of the way I performed. …

“Adversity is a part of everything. Just battled with some things, whether it be injuries, having to miss time, stuff like that, playing through bad games and things like that. I just like the way that I was able to be resilient through it all, finish the year strong, didn’t complain or anything. Went out there every Sunday and gave it everything that I had. I was really proud of that.”

New York is in the final portion of its offseason program, when teams are allowed to conduct 10 days of organized team practice activity, usually referred to as OTAs. The Giants are halfway through their OTAs, with No. 6 set for Friday. No contact work is permitted during these practices, but teams can expand their offseason workouts to include 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.

“It’s always fun when you go up against another body,” Neal said after Wednesday’s practice. “It’s easy for me to go out and take pass sets against air, but even those walkthrough speeds, you get to go through the feel of how you’re feeling, just my balance, my base, my hands and my feet, how everything is matching, stuff like that, so it was cool. Even though it’s a walkthrough pace at this point, really iron ain’t sharpening too much when you walk it through. But it’s still good to go through the motion. Get the muscle memory and the reps.”

New York has its mandatory minicamp scheduled for June 13-15 before breaking for the summer.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.