Giants bring back Evan Neal, Josh Ezeudu on the line. Could LI's Greg Van Roten be next?

PHOENIX — The Giants curiously brought back two offensive lineman who didn’t play a single snap between them in 2026 while the right guard who took every snap for the team over the last two seasons remains a free agent.

The latter of those is Greg Van Roten, the Chaminade High School graduate. General manager Joe Schoen bluntly said on Monday that Van Roten is “no longer here,” a quote that made it sound as if the team is moving on from the 36-year-old. And he said the team will look to fill the role in free agency, trade and the draft. But he quickly clarified that Van Roten is also “not out of the mix at all” to return to the Giants for a third season.

That’s something Van Roten said he would like to see happen at the conclusion of last season when he told Newsday: “I’d love to keep the band together, but we’ll see how it works out.”

The Giants did re-sign free agent Jermaine Eluemunor at right tackle and have Andrew Thomas, Jon Runyan Jr and John Michael Schmitz returning as other projected returning starters on the line.

As for the players who didn’t get on the field last year, the Giants signed both former seventh overall pick Evan Neal and third-rounder Josh Ezeudu to one-year deals. Both had injuries at times in 2026 but they were mostly healthy scratches throughout the season.

Those were two of the more puzzling signings of the free agency period by the Giants, but head coach John Harbaugh said he believed they both can still be good players. He even dug deep into his old English classes to justify it.

“I'm excited about those two guys,” he said on Monday. “I remember back as far back as the draft process, those two players were guys that we felt really good about in Baltimore. We had them highly graded. They haven't broken through yet. But why can't they? George Bernard Shaw said: ‘Some men see things as they are and they ask why, we see things as they are not and ask why not?’ That's what I kind of say with those two guys. Why not?”

Harbaugh said both came into his office to discuss their futures with the team and he found them to be motivated by the vision for what they want to accomplish.

“They're talented, they're tough, they want to be great,” Harbaugh said. “They have dreams. They have big dreams. So if they're gonna dream big, I'd like them to do it right here in our building and try to realize those dreams with us. And we'll give them a shot to do that.”

Neal, who came into the league as a tackle and transitioned to guard last season, will remain a guard… which puts him in line to earn that one currently empty starting spot. Ezeudu can play both tackle and guard.

While Harbaugh was high on Neal’s potential in particular, Schoen, the GM who drafted him, seemed a little less willing to go down the path with Neal a second time. Still, with a one-year deal for the league minimum, Schoen said it was worth the minimal risk.

“Evan's still 25,” Schoen said. “I mean, he's a big human being that played at a high level at Alabama, and played well for us in Year One, and for whatever reason, it didn't work out. At the end of the day you take 14 offensive linemen to training camp and the way the deal is structured, the deal that we got him at, he's another guy that gets a fresh start with a new staff in a familiar environment.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.