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Cool Article on Greg Van Roten from The Athletic

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It still hasn’t completely sunk in for Greg Van Roten. It might not until he puts on a Jets jersey for the first time.

Well, technically, not the first time ever, but first in quite some time.

Van Roten is from Long Island. His dad Thomas was a diehard Jets fan, just like his grandfather. So he followed in their footsteps. He went to training camp at Hofstra. Visited practices. Went to games at the old Giants Stadium. He fell in love with Wayne Chrebet and had his own jersey (actually five), helmet and football pants he’d wear on Halloween. The Jets were part of the community, he said. And he embraced them.

That old New York helmet doesn’t fit Van Roten anymore. At 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds, he’s outgrown the rest of the outfit, too. Lucky for him, though, the Jets will provide an upgrade. This month, they signed the free-agent guard to a three-year deal.

“This was my team growing up,” Van Roten told The Athletic. “And now I have a chance to go home, play here, play in front of friends and family toward the end of my career?  It’s a dream come true.”

 

New York’s pursuit of Van Roten in free agency is probably the first time the 30-year-old has been athletically coveted. He lived in Rockville Centre as a kid. He went to Chaminade High. While he starred as the team’s all-state left tackle, he didn’t garner much college interest. He was good, yes, but undersized at 250 pounds as a senior. The vast majority of his college offers were from Division III schools or Division I FCS more interested in him for academics than athletics.

Van Roten was determined, though. He thought the Ivy League might be his best bet to play both higher-level college ball and get his degree.

Not everyone agreed.

“One of the schools he was interested in was Yale,” his mother Cathy Van Roten said. “He went to a meeting up there and they asked to see his high school film.”

“And they reviewed it,” Thomas Van Roten continued. “Then they told him him ‘we don’t think you have what it takes to play at a Division 1 school.’ They said they thought he’d be better suited for Division III, and ‘good luck to you.’ The coach put all of that in writing.” 

Around the same time Yale turned Van Roten down, the University of Pennsylvania sent an informational packet to his guidance counselor. He went to a Junior Day, then a summer camp before his senior year in 2007. He impressed the coaches. They offered. He made an early decision. He’d study economics at the Wharton School and play football. 

While Van Roten didn’t see time as a freshman, he worked himself into the starting lineup in 2009 at left tackle. He helped anchor a front that allowed the fewest sacks in the Ivy League. They were pretty good on the ground, too, averaging just under 150 yards per game (third-most in Ivy League). In 2010 and 2011, Van Roten earned first-team All-Ivy honors. He started all 30 games for Penn his final three seasons. He was a two-time Ivy League champion.

Oh, and Penn beat Yale each year.

“That senior year, he was co-captain,” Cathy Van Roten said. “He kept that letter they sent all those years before. He pulled it out before the game. He read it to his teammates. That was the pre-game speech.

“Here’s the thing about Gregory, and all three of my boys (older brother Tom and younger brother Michael), but especially Gregory: When you tell him he can’t do something … he makes it happen. He never gives up. He’s where he is because of that. He just doesn’t give up.”

Penn isn’t a breeding ground for NFL talent. Just three alumni were on NFL rosters in Week 1 last season. The majority of NFL teams overlook the players on Ivy League rosters. If they were next-level talented, they’d have gone somewhere like Florida, Miami or Alabama.

So when Van Roten thought about making a run as a professional football player, the odds weren’t exactly in his favor. When the vast majority of his college friends found immediate jobs in the fields of their respective studies, Van Roten thought about a backup plan. He graduated Penn as a member of the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. He could get a job just like anyone else.

The game plan: Give football a shot, but have a backup. He’d get his resume ready just in case.

That got shot down.

Cathy Van Roten is a big Oprah fan, Greg said. Around the time he expressed to his parents his interest in playing in the NFL, Oprah had interviewed Will Smith. He stressed how if you have a Plan B, you never fully commit to Plan A.

“This was the only point in his whole life to pursue what he really wanted to pursue, which was football,” Cathy Van Roten said. “We supported him 100 percent – literally (laughs) – because in three years he couldn’t say, ‘Oh, maybe now I’ll go try football.’

“No. The time was then. We knew it was his dream. So whatever we could do to support it, we did.”

Van Roten didn’t receive an invite to the 2012 NFL Combine in Indianapolis. But at his Pro Day, his 40-yard dash (5.06 seconds), vertical (34.5 inches), broad jump (9-4), bench press (31 reps) and 20-yard shuttle (4.38 seconds) would have ranked him fifth, second, second, eighth and first among linemen in Indianapolis.

He didn’t get drafted, but did receive invites to the rookie minicamps of the Jets and Chargers.

Neither of those teams signed him, but that led to a workout with the Packers a day before training camp opened.

They didn’t sign him either, but told him to stay in the area. The next day, two players failed their physicals. So Green Bay brought Van Roten to camp.

The Packers converted Van Roten from left tackle to center. There was an acclimation period, which likely contributed to his release at the end of camp. Green Bay saw enough, though, to sign him to their practice squad, then elevate him to the 53-man roster after running back Cedric Benson suffered a season-ending injury. He remained on the gameday roster for the final seven weeks.

The next year he returned. He played 158 snaps in the preseason. He didn’t allow a single sack and just one quarterback hit while splitting time at left guard (15), center (135) and right tackle (11). He made the 53-man roster as a backup center and guard. In Week 4, though, an injury at practice landed him on the injured reserve. In February 2014, Green Bay released him.

The Seahawks signed Van Roten to a futures deal the next day. He made it through organized team activities and the majority of training camp, but they cut him during the 75-man roster trim. The Vikings were the only team to work him out after that, but he didn’t sign.

“I had a lot of interest in Canadian teams asking me to come up and play for them,” Van Roten said. “But I wanted to make sure I was available in case something came up in the NFL. When the 2014 season ended, a ton of guys got future deals. I was not one of those guys.

“That offseason was the year the NFL held that veteran combine. I went to that. The Eagles were interested and wanted me to come to their rookie minicamp. The union blocked it though, because I technically wasn’t a rookie. And that was it. Basically, all of my NFL offers were dried up.”

Van Roten needed more film. He needed to play to get it.

So he went to Toronto.

Thomas Van Roten watched Greg’s football career every step of the way — high school, college, Green Bay. It was the CFL, though, where he noticed the most significant change.

Not between the lines. Physically.

There was a rededication from his son. An understanding that if he wanted to make it, he needed to improve. Doing it the old way wasn’t going to cut it any longer.

“He changed his body,” Thomas Van Roten said. “When he left the Packers, he was a little porky. He changed his diet. He started speaking with his friends from UPenn that were into nutrition, gyms, working out. They gave him programs that really worked out well for him.

“You saw the jump (in Canada). He got bigger, stronger, faster. He was dominant. It really built back his mojo. ”

Van Roten signed with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts intent on playing one year. He’d do well, get his film, then get back to the NFL. He accomplished the first two, helping lead the team to a 10-8 record. After they lost in the divisional finals, though, head coach Scott Milanovich called Van Roten into his office.

Toronto couldn’t let Van Roten go. He played too well. They exercised the second-year option on his contract. Van Roten was slightly frustrated, but viewed it as an opportunity to show he wasn’t just a one-year wonder.

In 2016, though, injuries ravaged the Argonauts offensive line. Again Milanovich called Van Roten into his office. He told him they needed him to play left tackle – a position he hadn’t played since college. This annoyed Van Roten. He couldn’t put out his best film if he played out of position. That’s when Milanovich made him a promise.

“He told me, after the season, he’d do everything he could to get me to the NFL,”  Van Roten said. “I said, ‘OK. Let’s do it.'”

Toronto finished the 2016 season an ugly 5-13. Van Roten wasn’t nearly as dominant as he was the year prior, primarily because he played out of position. But he still found some success.

He expected an abundance of NFL calls.

Instead?

“It was just silence,” Van Roten’s agent, Bill Baldini said.

Baldini started calling teams in an attempt to convince them just to give Van Roten a look. The Jets brought him in – ex-GM Mike Maccagnan always had an affinity for CFL players. But they didn’t sign him. Then the Bears. Van Roten impressed assistant coach Kevin Mawae, but they didn’t need a center.

And then…nothing.

No more calls. No more workouts. A 27-year-old free agent with no interest outside of the CFL.

Van Roten made a call of his own. Milanovich, his coach in Canada, was now the quarterbacks coach for the Jaguars.

“He got me a workout,” Van Roten said. “And they signed me to a two-year deal.”

He saw four of those 24 months. The Jaguars drafted offensive tackle Cam Robinson in the first round. They signed two more offensive linemen (Avery Gennesy, Parker Collins) as priority free agents. On May 1, they cut him. He never made it to a practice.

Baldini again went back to the phones. He got Van Roten workouts with the Giants and Bills, but neither signed him. As a last-ditch effort, he called Mark Koncz, a friend who at the time was the Panthers’ director of pro personnel. Koncz, who now works for the Giants, came away impressed. He sent Van Roten’s film up the chain of command.

Then-interim general manager Marty Hurney agreed to bring Van Roten in. They needed an extra body to fill their pre-camp workout. They intended on signing a player who’d spent a portion of 2016 with them, but needed to see if he was in shape.

The Panthers had no intention of signing Van Roten. That changed after seeing him in person.

“I did not think what would happen if this didn’t work out,” Van Roten said. “This was it. I knew training camp started the next day. I needed this to go well. I had no other choice.”

That 2017 training camp with Carolina was the first for Van Roten since 2014 in Seattle. He made the 53-man roster as a long shot and saw time in 10 games. He played primarily special teams. The Panthers brought him back in 2018. Matt Kalil, Daryl Williams and Amini Silatolu all went down with injuries that summer. Van Roten replaced Silatolu at guard.

He played 85 preseason snaps. He didn’t allow a single sack or quarterback hit.

Silatolu healed in time for the Week 1 opener.

Carolina instead stuck with Van Roten. 

“Just before Gregory made the team in 2017, we were chatting with one of his coaches,” Cathy Van Roten said. “He told us they didn’t expect to keep Greg that year. I was stunned. Everything was rosy. He’s on the team. But he told us they thought Greg was just going to be some ‘camp body.’

“But then he said: ‘Greg made it impossible for us to cut him. It was impossible.”

Van Roten started every game for the Panthers in 2018. He played every single snap. The next year, he returned as the unquestioned starter. Through 11 weeks, he was playing the best football of his career on the final year of his contract. He allowed just one sack, three quarterback hits and 13 hurries. He had a ProFootballFocus grade of 65.6, including an impressive 74.3 mark in pass protection. Referees penalized him twice on 704 snaps.

In Week 12, he dislocated his toe. He landed on injury reserve three days later.

Van Roten never really thought about that season being his last in Carolina. He had an affinity for the organization after they took a chance on him and hoped all along to re-sign. But when the Panthers let Ron Rivera, Greg Olsen and others go, it became clear they were undergoing wholesale changes. Van Roten accepted that, and prepared for a new career-first. He’d enter unrestricted free agency not having to convince a team to hire him. He was a player teams wanted.

And it wasn’t long before his hometown team made their intentions awful clear.

The Bills liked Van Roten. Miami, too, before signing Ereck Flowers. Washington reached out with Rivera now running the show, along with Seattle, Cincinnati and Chicago. But the Jets were there in force from the beginning. First (unofficially) at the NFL Combine. Then (officially) during the legal tampering period and through the start of the league year. They called Baldini daily in an attempt to bridge the gap between what he wanted and what they were offering.

The two sides agreed to a three-year, $10.5 million deal on March 21st.

“I know a lot of people chase the money,” Van Roten said. “I understand that. But I wanted to go somewhere where they wanted me and I was valued. It says a lot that they showed so much interest early on. They were the first team we heard from, and they stuck with us day in and day out to check in throughout the process.”

Jets general manager Joe Douglas promised wholesale changes to the team’s offensive line and he’s delivered. Aside from Van Roten, the Jets signed former Seattle tackle George Fant and ex-Broncos center Connor McGovern. They re-signed Alex Lewis and added a depth piece in Josh Andrews.

Douglas didn’t promise Van Roten anything other than the chance to compete for a starting job. Last year’s right guard, Brian Winters, is still under contract. That’s fine with him, too. He’s had to fight for everything throughout his career.

Why would he stop now?

“I’m just beginning my prime,” Van Roten said. “That 2017 season was my first with Carolina. I was a backup. It was kinda the same thing when I was with Green Bay all those years ago. Then in 2018 I became a starter and in 2019 I was the unquestioned starter. I only have two real years of experience in the NFL, but then you add in those two years in Canada. I somehow have low mileage and experience with how this has worked out for me.

“I feel like I’m 26 in NFL years, and I hope I get to play four, five, six more years. We’ll see. This is a crazy game, and anything can happen. If I’m healthy and able, I want to play as long as I can. For it to be with the Jets? It would be incredible.”

(Top photo: John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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pdxgreen

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8 hours ago, Lupz27 said:

Really hot smoking blonde over here, sucks you can’t see her, but like your link in the post I had to pay to get a look ?

The Athletic is totally free for the next 90 days due to the suspension of most pro sports.  Still have to open up an account to watch that hot girl do her workout routine.  But hey, at least she's waiving her site fee.

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Chrebetfan80

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This is what encourages me about JD.  Obviously it comes down to how well he drafts, since clearly his strategy is centered around building through the draft.  However, when you listen to these free agents talk, its about guys that are passionate about football, high character, and WANT to be HERE.  These can be such underrated qualities, but that type of synergy can create something special in locker rooms.  It may not lead to many wins this year, but its certainly a very encouraging start to building a foundation of quality players. 

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