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New to the team but not new to each other.
Need to import a new right side of the offensive line? Why, raid the Raiders, of course.
“I have no idea if there’s a precedent for that, but it definitely helps with continuity,’’ Greg Van Roten told The Post on Wednesday after practice. “It’s unusual to get continuity with the same person on two different teams.’’
Yeah, that would be unusual. Changing teams almost always means getting used to new teammates. That has happened, for sure, with Van Roten, but not with his most important professional relationship. He will line up Sunday in the season opener against the Vikings as the new starting right guard for the Giants and directly alongside him, to his right, will be Jermaine Eluemunor at tackle. These two played these same positions last season for the Raiders. The Giants signed both in free agency and, just like that, they transplanted from Las Vegas a new right side of their offensive line.
“I think the fact that me and GV have played together for a whole year and he understands how I play, I understand how he plays, we can really benefit from each other and that’s really cool,’’ Eluemunor told The Post.
But wait, there’s more. Before Eluemunor and Van Roten came aboard, Giants coach Brian Daboll hired Carmen Bricillo to replace Bobby Johnson as the offensive line coach. Bricillo held that same title the past two seasons for — you guessed it — the Raiders.
It is a Raiders Reunion.
“To add Carm into that mix, he knows how we both play, he knows our tendencies and the things we like to do out there,’’ Eluemunor said. “He doesn’t have to coach off the unknown. It’s good for us, it’s good for Carm and it’s good for the offensive line in general.’’
The left side of the line — stud tackle Andrew Thomas and dependable, durable newcomer Jon Runyan (50 starts the past three seasons for the Packers) — should not be an issue and could be a strength. The center, second-year John Michael Schmitz, must prove he can stay healthy and play much better than he did as a rookie. It is on the right side of the line where this grand experiment will be enacted. If Eluemunor, 29, and Van Roten, 34, can do for the Giants in 2024 what they did for the Raiders in 2023 — they played nearly 800 snaps alongside each other — it is not difficult to envision this offensive line as a smart, capable unit.
“They’re always with each other, joking around, they got good connection on and off the field,’’ Runyan said, “Two solid veteran players, and I think it’s gonna bode well for our offensive line this year.’’
It is not as if the Giants pillaged a sad-sack unit. The Raiders last season graded out as the 10th-best offensive line in the league, according to Pro Football Focus, with Eluemunor and Van Roten, putting together perhaps the finest seasons in their mostly-vagabond careers.
In Eluemunor’s first five NFL years he was a spot starter and mostly a backup for three teams. He broke out in 2022, starting all 17 games for the Raiders, emerging as a solid right tackle and he continued that growth in 2023. Eluemunor allowed six sacks in 552 pass block snaps, according to PFF, and was a bulldozer in the running game.
Van Roten, a native of Rockville Centre, Long Island, went undrafted out of Penn in 2012. That he has kicked around the league for nine years — the Giants are his sixth team — is a testament to his ability to fit in and provide serviceable performance when called upon. There was really no reason to suspect he would enjoy a career resurgence in 2023, but he did, starting all 17 games at right guard for the Raiders. He did not commit a penalty in 1,025 snaps, allowed five sacks in 626 pass block snaps and compiled an overall PFF grade of 75.3 — seventh best out of 79 qualifying guards, the highest grade of his career.
So there is no denying the Giants are banking on a pair of veterans on upswings. That is encouraging. What is unknown is if these two have already played their best football and if it is realistic to expect them to continue to ascend.
What is certain is that Eluemunor and Van Roten are completely comfortable lining up next to each other. They are friends on and off the field, each knowing the other’s wife and daughter.
“For me, especially the way my career has kind of shaken out, this will be one of the first times I’ve played next to the same tackle two years in a row,’’ Van Roten said. “That’s definitely a positive.’’
For the right side of the offensive line, The Raider Way has moved to the Giants.
