{"id":745370,"date":"2026-02-11T18:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/745370\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T18:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T18:38:13","slug":"nfl-free-agency-2026-should-the-giants-count-on-greg-van-roten-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/745370\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL free agency 2026: Should the Giants count on Greg Van Roten again?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One of the more interesting decisions facing the New York Giants this offseason is whether or not to bring starting right guard Greg Van Roten back for another season. As NFL free agency approaches, let\u2019s discuss the pros and cons.<\/p>\n<p>Reasons to keep Van Roten<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Van Roten has played reasonably well as the Giants\u2019 starting right guard the past two seasons. Certainly better than the much more highly-paid Jon Runyan Jr. has at left guard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Van Roten will be 36 later this month. His pro football career started as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers in 2012 and included a two-year stint with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL in 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Van Roten remains a useful player, and shows no signs of breaking down as he has played more than 1,000 snaps in each of the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Should he continue to be a starter? That is a different question. Every team needs quality veteran backups who can step in and play competently in an emergency without a ton of practice reps. Van Roten could do that at both guard spots and center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Spotrac estimates his market value at $5 million for one year. That might be high for Van Roten, who made $3.25 million in 2025. Still, his versatility and experience might make it a worthwhile investment.<\/p>\n<p>Reasons to let Van Roten go<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Van Roten will be 36, and he isn\u2019t going to get better. At some point, there will be regression. Maybe you move on before that happens, and Jaxson Dart or your running game pays for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Maybe Van Roten won\u2019t be a scheme fit for what offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, senior offensive assistant Greg Roman, and offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren have in mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Maybe the Giants think they can get similar play at a cheaper price from Austin Schlottmann, who is also heading to free agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">I have no issue with looking for a starter with more upside, but as I said above there is a lot of value for any offensive line in an experienced, competent player who can be a three-position backup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the more interesting decisions facing the New York Giants this offseason is whether or not to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,7558,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-745370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-new-york-giants-free-agency","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkgiants","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116053456177372112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}