Giants.com breaks down how Dalvin Tomlinson fits into the team:
In what has become an unintended tradition every handful of years, the New York Giants drafted a defensive tackle in the second round. This time it was Dalvin Tomlinson, a force in Alabama's front seven for the last three seasons.
Here is a look at what the Giants saw in him and how he fits into the defense:
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In 2010, the Giants drafted Linval Joseph in the second round. In 2013, they took Johnathan Hankins in the second round after Joseph left in free agency. So what did they do in 2017 after Hankins also left in free agency? They drafted Tomlinson – in the second round.
"That's just the way it's worked out," general manager Jerry Reese said. "We would love to keep the player. Sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. With the last two big guys we've had inside, we weren't able to keep them. They moved on to a better situation for them. We've been able to draft some guys that have been able to come in and fill the gap for us."
"It kind of reminded us – we kind of talked about the situation where when we had Linval," said Marc Ross, vice president of player evaluation. "The year we took him we kind of talked about him early and then he was there in the second for us and filled a void. Linval goes and then [Hankins], we were really high on Hank and we talked about him early and he was there in the second round and we took Hank and he filled in. Both of those guys became pretty good players for us, so this was kind of a similar situation."
So will they go through this again in four years?
"I hope not," Ross said.
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As they say at Alabama, Tomlinson is a "man's man" who worked his way up through the ranks in Nick Saban's powerhouse program. He's 6-foot-3, 310 pounds, and has all the following adjectives the Giants' top brass used in the post-pick press conference:
-"violent with his hands"
-"grown man strength"
-"country strong"
-"pro-ready"
-"jolt"
-" walk-back power"
-"stout at the point of attack"
-"sneaky athleticism"
-"commanding presence"
-"guy you want in the foxhole"
"[Stopping the run is] the foundation in this game," coach Ben McAdoo said. "One of the core parts of this game is stopping the run, getting teams into third down and long so you can rush the passer and disrupt the quarterback."
HE'LL DO THE DIRTY WORK
At Alabama, defensive linemen are constantly being rotated in and out. And the results speak for themselves. Tomlinson's role in the shuffle was doing all the dirty work and getting the hidden production. Now he enters a position room with the likes of Jason Pierre-Paul, Olivier Vernon and Damon Harrison, a first-team All-Pro selection who will be his partner on the inside.
"I think [doing the dirty work] is a big thing that the coaches were looking for with whoever that fourth guy was in there because we have three studs on the defensive line," Ross said. "So the next guy – he can kind of come in there and learn from those guys and play his role, there are not a lot of big expectations and just go play."
WOWED AT COMBINE INTERVIEW
Some people are smart enough to get into Harvard. Some football players are good enough to be recruited by Alabama. Very few are both. Tomlinson is one of them. Once pursued to play at Harvard, Tomlinson ultimately chose to play and win championships at Alabama.
"Man, Dalvin was one of the best definitely this year, but he will be a guy that you talk about for a long time," said Marc Ross, vice president of player evaluation. "He was one of the more memorable ones that we have had. He was just smart, mature, poised, confident, just a man. He walked in the room and he had a commanding presence."
"When he left the room," Reese said, "everyone was like, 'Wow, that was pretty impressive.'"
