School: Kansas
Year: Sr
Position: RB

Physical Attributes

• Height: 5-11
• Weight: 213
• RAS: 8.43
• 40 Time: 4.6

Rankings

• Joe’s Ranking: 6.2
• Consensus Position Rank: 23
• My Position Ranking: 9
• Difference in Ranking: 14
• Tier: 5
• Projected Round: 4

Games Watched

• Arizona State ’24
• Colorado ’24

Ryan’s Notes

Positives

• Powers through everything, great contact balance to ride early collisions and has knack for splitting would-be tacklers for more yards. His low center of gravity is nice trait.
• He uses angles to his advantage very often as is aware of when to press the boost button at the last second to make the most of these chances.
• Lined up a lot at receiver vs Arizona State for regular success, he showed solid hands here.
• He has some patience to wait for blocking concepts to develop but he also has a nasty cut to make his own space when required.
• Neal is scheme sound and will always press the intended gap to its fullest and can ride that gap through lateral contact to come out the otherside of it ready for another move which is an under appreciated skill.
• His touchdown run off of the swing pass in Q1 vs Colorado was electric, he cut by one defender and had already set up his next move to jump cut around before surging through the next level and riding contact into the endzone.
• He had to deal with some pretty spectacular blocking failures in the backfield and still managed to avoid the free defender, I really like how eyes are always up looking for his next move.
• Neal gets some decent burst off of his feet with powerful legs that can generate force effectively, the testing backs this up with 82nd percentile explosive testing (vertical and broad which are both done from a standing start).

Negatives

• The inconsistencies between the ASU and CU tape is vast and I would need some context from him as to why that was. Against Arizona State in October he looked sluggish with a slow lateral change of direction and his agility skills were not dynamic enough but cut to the Colorado tape in November (6 weeks later) and he was flying around.
• His top end speed is lacking and NFL defenders will run him down as he struggles to separate after the last hurdle.
• He lacks the twitch to make the most of his cuts and I worry with how tight the second wave of defenders are in the NFL that he will be caught trying to make the kind of moves he relies on.

Ryan’s Summary

Neal is a technically sound back with a low center of gravity that is hard to knock over. He can power through weak tackle attempts with a solid lower half and when you pair this with his elusiveness you can see how he could be a teams’ lead back. However I have some concerns as he isn’t a truly explosive athlete and whilst he broke some big runs this past year I think these wouldn’t have happened at the next level as he is only just getting away from defenders at college level. I also have worries about why some of his film looks sluggish and laconic in stark contrast to other games where he was light on his feet. Overall I think Neal has a pretty high floor as a back who can keep you on schedule and make the most of the gaps he is offered but without the true explosive traits of others in this class I think his ceiling is a bit limited.