Giants' First-round Picks Were Destined to Ascend Together

Giants first-round picks Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal will be seeing a lot of each other throughout the early years of their career.

And for the Giants, that's a good thing. Because their two first-round picks, by virtue of their positions played, are sure to lock horns on the practice field depending on the defensive formation, making for one of the more intriguing matchups to come to a football field near you this summer.

The looming battle between the two is nothing new, however. Both players, members of the 2019 recruiting class, were five-star prospects, Thibodeaux coming from Oaks Christian High School and Neal from the IMG Academy.

And both young men, coming out of high school, were also ranked as the top prospects at their respective positions according to On3 Consensus, a site that averages out the grades generated by all four major recruiting services for prospects.

Long before these two became Giants teammates, they were mixing it up on the football field as youths as high school underclassmen at a football camp.

They were both five-stars.

They were both elite in college.

Now they're both @Giants

Check out Evan Neal and Kayvon Thibodeaux going head-to-head as high school underclassmen. pic.twitter.com/DKqOyrhgxM
— Rivals (@Rivals) April 29, 2022

"Yeah, crazy," Neal said with a smile when the video was mentioned.

"It's not ironic, though," added Thibodeaux. "It's God. I'm telling you, it's God."

It was also destiny for the two young men with very different demeanors--Neal is quieter and reserved while Thibodeaux is more outgoing and loquacious--that they would one day meet again on the gridiron to help each other become the best version of himself possible.

"I think it speaks to the value of competitiveness," Thibodeaux said when asked for his recollection of that moment caught on tape in which it looks like Neal got the better of his new teammate. "It speaks to the value of wanting to be better.

"For me and him, every time we came to a camp, we knew it was like, 'Okay, you know how they’re going to set us up?' But it was that, like, 'Okay, he's the best; I'm the best. Now let's get better, you know what I mean. Let's prove to ourselves why we got this far."

Competition in practice can sometimes become heated, especially during the dog days of summer training camp when tempers are fragile and heated exchanges usually occur.

But at the end of the day, if both men take that quantum leap in their development which is already at a high level, their pushing each other during practice, no matter what the weather, will have been worth it.

"I believe it's going to push us tremendously," Neal said of the opportunity to practice across from Thibodeaux. "I believe iron sharpens iron, so what better place to get better than the New York Giants? So I'm just excited to go out there and compete, compete my hardest, and hopefully, we make each other better."

Join the Giants Country Community

Sign up for our FREE digest newsletter
Follow and like us on Facebook
Submit your questions for our mailbag
Listen and subscribe to the daily LockedOn Giants podcast.
Subscribe and like the new LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
Sign up for our FREE message board forums