Green Bay Packers: Ted Thompson’s top 30 draft picks of all-time

25. Mike Neal (Ray’s pick)

Like tight end Andrew Quarless who suffered injuries early in his career, Mike Neal missed mush of the first two seasons in the league.

But that was before he was moved from defensive end to outside linebacker in 2013 when he played in all 16 games.

He replicated his ability to stay on the field in 2014 and 2015, playing in all 16 regular season games over that stretch of time.

As a free agent still on the market, he continues to look for a team this offseason.

Green Bay hasn’t seemed interested up to this point in bringing him back, though they did re-sign his counterpart, Nick Perry, to a single-season contract a few weeks ago.

Will they eventually do the same for Neal?

The Packers saw that Neal’s comfort level in playing without his hand in the dirt improved even more in 2015 as he joined Perry in helping to back up Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews on the outside.

In 2013, Neal started 10 games for Green Bay, had one interception, one forced fumble and the most sacks of his career with five. He also had 24 tackles, and 18 assists. Over the course of the past three seasons, Neal has had 87 solo tackles and 39 assists.

Solid could probably describe Neal’s play the past two years, but it hasn’t been solid enough for Packers officials to re-sign him to a contract either for the upcoming season or beyond.

Neal has adapted from playing defensive lineman to playing linebacker and has shown signs that he could bring the potential most expected when he was drafted out of Purdue in 2010.

It will be interesting to watch Neal to see if the Packers bring Neal back.

Stay tuned …

Next: No. 25 (Freddie's pick)