It looks like Brian Daboll will be able to avoid making one of his trickiest lineup decisions of the season for at least another week.
It would be hard to sell his motto of playing the players who give the team “the best chance to win” inside the Giants locker room if right tackle Tyre Phillips was benched after he didn’t allow a sack for the third straight game, all wins.
He neutralized the Packers’ Rashan Gary (nine sacks this season) on 36 snaps last game.
The Giants are more heavily invested in the development of 2022 first-round pick Evan Neal, but he is listed as doubtful on the injury report and could miss a fifth straight game Sunday against the Saints, which buys time for Daboll.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Daboll said before Friday’s practice.
Playing Neal (four-year, $24 million contract) over Phillips (one-year, $1 million contract) makes sense if the focus is the future.
But the Giants are one game out of an NFC playoff spot, and the same five-man offensive line combination has started the last three games, building elusive continuity.
General manager Joe Schoen recently said Neal “needs to get better” once he gets healthy.
Offensive line coach Bobby Johnson said there is urgency for Neal — who has missed 10 games due to injury and struggled in most of the 20 he has played — to get more reps and he needs more time playing tackle before a future switch to guard can be considered, which suggests Phillips as the odd man out when Neal’s ankle heals.
“It’s nothing I can stress on,” Phillips told The Post. “I am a four-year veteran, so I understand how it goes. If they say my name, they say my name. If they say his name, I’m still going to prepare as a starter. That’s how it goes.”
Phillips, who started four games for the Giants last season but was injured during training camp and cut afterward, returned from the Eagles practice squad Oct. 17.
It is one of several factors that coincided with the midseason stabilization of the offensive line, which allowed no sacks and received the game ball after beating the Packers.
“When I first came back, I didn’t know the situation I was brought into but I knew I was ready for any situation,” Phillips said. “I was ready to play. Sitting on the couch watching people play, I have a lot of respect for practice-squad guys because I’ve been there.”
Phillips was a third-round pick of the Ravens who admits that early in his career, he might have gotten the benefit of the doubt over later-round picks, including then- and now-teammate Ben Bredeson.
“I understand how it works,” Phillips said. “Politics are politics, and that will never change. It’s a game of opportunity and staying ready.”
Daboll referred to Phillips as a “good teammate, good communicator.”
Phillips’ best argument to stay on the field is continuing to play well.
“That’s it. Point-blank. No argument,” Phillips said. “I’m finding something week-by-week, where I could’ve done this or that to get better.”