DL Dalvin Tomlinson
November 11, 2020
Q: I’m wondering if you could talk about the guy that plays alongside of you, Leonard Williams, and the year he’s having. If you look at Leonard on film, he does so much of the dirty work, besides yourself, don’t get me wrong. Talk about what he does for you and your game.
A: Leonard’s a great guy. I love playing beside him. I feel like we feed off each other. He does a lot of the dirty work, takes up a lot of blocks and stuff like that for us to make other plays across the D-line. I feel like we all do it for each other, like you said. We all do the dirty work upfront, it’s part of the job description.
Q: Just to follow up Obviously, this is your contract year and you’re having a very good year at that. Is this the place you want to play?
A: I feel like the Giants organization… I’m loyal. This is family here. But I’m not focused on any of that stuff. I’m just focused on one week at a time.
Q: I know you played these guys only a couple of weeks ago, but when you go back and look at the film there, can you see the improvements that your team has made since then?
A: Most definitely. I feel like we make improvements across the board week in and week out. I just feel like we continue to grow as a team.
Q: Are you a more confident team now than maybe you were back then?
A: I feel like the confidence has never left. We’ve always been confident across the board.
Q: Just to kind of piggyback off that question a little bit, I’m just wondering earlier in the year, Coach Judge and the players and the coaches all spoke about a getting-to-know-you type of process for everybody, where you were learning about one another. Do you feel that the team is kind of past that stage now to where you’re settling in and you’re starting to develop the identity that you’re looking to develop?
A: Most definitely. A lot of new guys across the board and things. Everybody, I feel like, got to know each other early on. Like you said, we just make sure our identity across the board is physicality. That’s what we want to be built off of.
Q: At the line of scrimmage, I think it’s five passes you have batted down now. Is it something in your game, is it something in this scheme that has allowed you to be as active as you’ve been? Did you grow a couple inches in the offseason? What do you attribute it to?
A: I wish I grew a couple inches in the offseason. A big thing for a defensive lineman, you want to affect the quarterback in all phases. I just make sure I put a key emphasis on batting down passes or getting my hands up because that’s just as effective as a sack or a TFL and things like that, because it gets in their head a little bit. We put extra emphasis on it this year.
Q: I think at some levels, people look at it as luck. I would imagine that you would tell me it’s not luck and there’s a skill involved. Have you developed that skill?
A: Yeah, I feel like I was pretty good at ‘Bama, so it just carried over into drills you do in the offseason and things like that and throughout training camp and stuff.
Q: You talked about loyalty, I’m wondering if you’ve seen it reciprocated and if you kind of expect something there to get done in regards to being here long-term?
A: Like I said before, I’m not going to really focus on the contract stuff right now. I’m just coming in every day trying to help the team as best as I possibly can, care for my teammates, and helping everybody across the board improve. I’ll just let that take care of itself in the long run.
