With less than six weeks to go until the start of the season, not only are the New York Giants still trying to figure out what their offensive line is going to look like this year, but they're still adding players to the competition.
The newest player who will be battling for a spot on the line is Greg Van Roten, who signed with the team on Tuesday. The veteran offensive lineman is heading to New York after spending the 2023 season in Las Vegas, where he started 17 games for the Raiders at guard.
Van Roten does have some ties to the Giants, so it's not a total surprise that he ended up signing with them. Carmen Bricillo, who's in his first year as the Giants offensive line coach, was in Las Vegas last year where he served as Van Roten's line coach. The 2023 season was arguably the best year of Van Roten's nine-year career.
In New York, it's not yet clear where Van Roten is going to play, but it will be somewhere on the interior, according to Daboll.
"I can see him playing any of three spots that we need inside: Left guard, right guard, center," the Giants coach said on Tuesday.
Van Roten has spent most of his career at right guard, so that would be the natural fit, but the Giants already have Jon Runyan at that spot. Daboll was asked about the possibility of moving Runyan to the left side or putting Van Roten over there and he said that decision will come in due time.
"We've had conversations about it," Daboll said. "When everybody gets back healthy, we'll see how it shakes out."
Jermaine Eluemunor was penciled in as the left guard, but he's been taking snaps at right tackle because the player who's normally at the position, Evan Neal, opened training camp on the PUP list. If Eluemunor stays at tackle, which is the position he played last year for the Raiders -- Eluemunor and Van Roten were teammates in Vegas last season -- then that will potentially open up one of the guard spots.
For now, Van Roten is going to be thrown "into the mix," according to Daboll. Van Roten is going into his 10th NFL season and the Giants will mark the fifth team he's played for in six years. Last season marked just the second time in Van Roten's career that he started at least 16 games in a season.