I'll give you the bad news first: a former Raiders starter is playing well. It stings a little to even type it. The good news is that he plays at a position of relative depth for the Raiders, so there's no need to be jealous.
Remember Greg Van Roten? He started every single of the Raiders' 17 games last year, and played pretty well. In fact, according to Pro Football Focus, he had the best season of his career in Las Vegas – his overall rating (75.3), run block rating (68.5) and pass block rating (77.4) were all among the highest he's ever posted, with both his overall and pass block ratings being career bests. And the Raiders let him walk!
Van Roten signed with the Giants a few weeks ago, and if you can believe it, he's already making (good) noise with his new team. His performance in their latest preseason game caught the eye of more than one reporter.
Greg Van Roten may be close to winning a starting job with the Giants
"Left tackle Andrew Thomas, right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, right guard Greg Van Roten and left guard Aaron Stinnie were all on the field for 21 pass blocking snaps and did not surrender a single pressure ... the additions of Eluemunor, Van Roten, Stinnie, Schlottmann, and Runyan when he gets back on the field, should go a long way in helping this unit improve greatly from 2023."
"Veteran lineman who immediately comes in and plays starter-level football" isn't usually the type of player you love to let walk, but the Raiders' offensive line should, in theory, be fine without Van Roten. Guard is admittedly a weaker position for them than tackle – once Jackson Powers-Johnson returns to full contact practicing, I'll worry less about Cody Whitehair – but there's enough talent across the whole unit to be fine with some early interior struggles.
Fortunately, if Van Roten has another stellar year, at least it'll be all the way on the East Coast – a place that notoriously doesn't get very much attention at all. No one will even notice.