Greg Van Roten, LG
Greg Van Roten emerged as a starter last training camp, and with Daryl Williams looking to start at left tackle, it seems as though the question this year is less about whether he will start but rather what type of contract his level of play will command when he hits free agency next offseason. Given that, he will be wanting to have the best season possible, and there were certainly some good bits from his game against the Bills, but there were also some plays left on the field. As a run blocker, he wasn’t asked to do a huge amount as a solo blocker or in space, but he did have one really nice play where he made a reach block on the interior defensive lineman (he wears #73):
In pass protection, he had a couple of really nice snaps:
However, as with many offensive linemen, his knee bend was quite poor at times, as can be seen clearly on this play:
And while he was able to get away with it on that play, a major part of the reason why he was able to be bullrushed so effectively on the following play was because his limited knee bend means his center of mass is high and his only way of coping with a power rush is to lean in and try and take away the momentum with multiple quick steps:
The bigger issue here is that this leads to him frequently leaning into contact, and this makes it easier for defenders to put him off balance, as happens on this play:
This created some issues for him last season, and is something that is going to create issues going forward unless he is able to fix the underlying issue, which is his trouble with power rushers. If he can spend some time in the weight room and work on improving his knee bend, there is hope that the rest of the issues are aided as a consequence.
Up Next: Can Daryl Williams Play Left Tackle?
