RealGM

Newz wrote:I'm so stun I don't even know if I am stun.

Mike Neal was 6-foot-3 and a skinny 195 pounds after his sophomore year at Merrillville when he received the dreaded either/or proposition from basketball coach Jim East.

Play basketball or football -- one or the other but not both.

Neal, who had started on the freshman and junior varsity teams, didn't like the terms of that deal at all.

Problem was, he really saw himself as a basketball player.

He had only gone out for football his freshman year because his buddy, Sean Kinsey, had talked him into it. He played tight end and defensive end his first year but he barely got on the field.

"I wanted to be a basketball player growing up," he said. "I wanted to be Kobe Bryant. I always thought of myself as a basketball player. I knew I needed to get bigger or I was going to get killed."

The take-it-or-leave-it deal rubbed Neal the wrong way so he went all in -- for football.

Turns out, Neal made the right call.

The 6-31/2, 297-pound defensive tackle from Purdue will likely have his name called Friday in either the second or third round of the NFL draft.

Neal is universally ranked as one of the 15 best defensive linemen in the draft. Some analysts have him pegged as being in the top 10.

Neal, who claims no rooting bias for any team because he really didn't watch football as a kid, doesn't care where he plays.

He's just happy that he'll get to work as a professional football player.

"Money doesn't have a name on it," he said. "I'll go wherever they pay me."

It's all emotional and syrupy and sweet for Mike Neal, Sr., a hulking Gary fireman who played at Lew Wallace and Weber State. Neal spent an excruciating day waiting for his name to be called during the draft. It never happened though he was invited to the Giants camp.

"It's so exciting," the elder Neal said. "It's awesome."

He remembers when Mike Jr. was 11, playing Pop Warner and there was a pile up with Mike at the bottom.

"Hey, they're not supposed to do that," Mike told his dad.

"This is football son," he told him.

Little Mike had one little tear welling up in the corner of his eye.

He claims it was a bead of sweat.

Early injury woes

The book on Neal and his NFL potential was a work-in-progress until this season ended.

An all-state player at Merrillville his senior year after recording 59 tackles (12 sacks), his coach Jeff Yelton knew then that his potential was unlimited.

At 6-3, 245, Neal had barely tapped his limits in terms of his size and skills.

"I figured if he kept growing and maturing that he could play at the next level," Yelton said.

He struggled with injuries in each of his first three seasons that caused him to have three separate surgeries that he calls minor.

Neal doesn't like to talk about them, saying they didn't affect his play. Yelton believes fighting through the injuries was huge for Neal because it showed his will to improve.

"That was critical for him," Yelton said.

Still, he didn't produce at a consistently high level until the 2008 season, when he finished with 51/2 sacks and 10 tackles for losses.

Last year, after being called "dominant" and the "strongest player on the team" by former defensive line coach Terrell Williams, Neal finished the season with 51/2 sacks and 111/2 tackles for losses.

Neal's value really sky rocketed after the season ended when he played in the East-West Shrine game and then the Senior Bowl.

"My performance at the East-West Shrine game definitely created some buzz and elevated my stock," Neal said. "The combine also helped too."

Neal can bench over 500 pounds. What really turned some heads was when he ran a 4.85 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. (He said he's run as low as 4.79 on his own).

"That's the fastest time out there for a guy that weighs 297 pounds," his agent, Roosevelt Barnes, said.

Barnes, who obviously has a rooting interest in where his client is picked, said he only sees two guys on the board that are clearly better than Neal -- Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska and Geral McCoy of Oklahoma.

Waiting for the call

Neal has had one private work-out with New England.

The Patriots, who have three picks in the second round -- the 44th, 47th and 53rd, ran him through an intense, confusing 45-minute practice to test his mental and physical makeup for the game.

He has avoided all the internet reports and projections about where he might go in the draft because he realizes there is a trail of misinformation out there about who is going to where.

"I don't have a clue of what any general manager is really thinking," he said.

Instead, he plans to spend a quiet evening at home with his parents and his brother Matt, who is about the same size as Mike and who also happens to be a college prospect after playing on the defensive line for the Pirates last year. Mike Sr. said they'll probably play dominoes and wait for the phone call.

"It's going to be an emotional day for me, " he said. "It's so surreal just being in this situation. This is a dream that not too many people realize."

Profound23 wrote:Ranked as the 15th best DT and a late 3rd round pick by Kiper

ouch

Regarded by many as the strongest and most dominant defensive lineman to wear a Boilermakers uniform since Jeff Zgonina in 1992, he holds several team weight records, boasting a 510-pound bench press, a 615-pound squat, a 385- pound clean.

Simulack wrote:

Profound23 wrote:Ranked as the 15th best DT and a late 3rd round pick by Kiper

ouch

Yeah, CBS has him as a 5th rounder and the 168th best prospect. I don't know anything about him to have an opinion either way.

Let's pray he can rush the quarterback?

LarryHarris wrote:I'm really disgusted by this pick, makes me just not want to watch the rest of the draft, when Thompson is doing idiotic stuff like this...

El Duderino wrote:Hopefully Neal develops into a player, but DE sure didn't seen a need area unless we lose either Jolly or Jenkins after the season. Before this pick at DE we already had

Jenkins/Jolly/Raji/Wynn and a remote chance that Harrell is healthy and can play

Oh well, i'd have preferred a OLB or someone in the secondary, but hopefully this guy amounts to something.