EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — During the first half of the season, tinkering and maneuvering along the New York Giants’ offensive line has been common.

In the last three weeks, though, the group has played extremely well together – so well that there doesn’t seem to be room for veteran David Diehl to return to a starting role.

The Giants (5-2) have won three straight and four of the five games when the starting line has consisted of Will Beatty and Chris Snee at guards, Kevin Boothe and Sean Locklear at tackles, and David Baas at center. The moves were made when Diehl, the 10-year veteran and a staple on both Giants’ Super Bowl championship teams, went down with a sprained right knee.

After practice Thursday, Diehl declared himself 100 percent healthy, but knows his recovery doesn’t guarantee playing time considering the rest of the line has played well without him.

“Of course I want to play,” Diehl said. “I want to do whatever I can to contribute. And of course I’d like to be starting but that might not be the case. I’m not going to sit and sulk about it. I’m going to help out any way I can. I can play guard, tackle, tight end. It doesn’t matter to me. It’s just terrific to feel good again.

“The team is playing well and that’s the most important thing. I want to go out there and start but if that’s not going to happen, I’m going to support my teammates. Whether I start or not doesn’t matter. The team always comes first.”

Diehl said Thursday brought a major accomplishment: full participation in practice.

“It means that my name can finally come off the injury list,” Diehl said. “Reading that every week drove me crazy.”

The Giants head to Dallas (3-3) on Sunday with a bit of revenge on their minds. The Cowboys won the season opener 24-17 at MetLife Stadium. In that game the Giants allowed six sacks, a stat that the offensive line vividly recalls.

“We have watched that first game a lot of times and we haven’t forgotten that,” said Snee, the Giants’ Pro Bowl guard. “We knew that we had to do things to improve ourselves. We feel better about ourselves, but this team presents a major challenge because they have a lot of elite guys across the board who can all get after the quarterback.”

Snee, who also started for both Super Bowl-winning teams, knows things improved immensely since the first meeting with the Cowboys.

“I think that first game, we came out flat and didn’t have a lot of energy,” Snee said. “I like to think we’ve been doing better. We definitely need to do a better job than we did the last time we played them. We’ve definitely improved but we can still improve more. I’m excited about the way we’ve played and I think there’s more to come.”

The Giants received good news when Baas returned to full participation Thursday.

“I think he’s ready to go,” Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said about Baas, who was hampered by a sore knee.

Beatty is feeling more comfortable with his linemates.

“As we play more games together, we’ve grown together. I think we’ve shaken off the cobwebs and we’re playing well together,” said Beatty, a fourth-year tackle. “It’s not like a magic trick. We’ve worked hard to get going. We saw a lot of things we did wrong in that first game against Dallas. We’ve seen the things where we messed up.”

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