“The best ability is availability” – Brian Dawkins
In the NFL talent does not matter much if you cannot stay on the field. Defensive Tackle Dalvin Tomlinson possesses both talent and availability. He has started every game of his three year NFL career. That makes him the second active Giant with the most game starts. He trails only Sterling Shepard. Shepard has one extra year in the NFL and at 52 starts leads Tomlinson by only four starts. Tomlinson is one of only 29 active players that started every game in their first three seasons and the only Giant ever to do so.
Besides his availability Tomlinson also shows a great ability at his position. He made the 2017 NFL All-Rookie Team. Pro Football Focus has graded Tomlinson above 78 each of his three NFL seasons. In 2019 he had 3.5 sacks and 9 quarterback hits. That comes out to a very respectable 38.8% sacks to hits ratio. In 2019 Tomlinson was one of only ten defensive tackles that had 3 sacks, 20 solo tackles, 7 tackles for loss and 9 quarterback hits.
Teams that ran up the middle on the Giants had a league below average gain of 3.5 yards. The league average was 4.0 yards. On 91 attempts up the middle against Tomlinson only 4 made 10+ yards for 4.4%. The league overall had 8.4% of attempts toward center going for 10+ yards. Tomlinson’s seven tackles for loss in 2019 were the second most on the Giants team. NFL.com analyst, Cynthia Frelund, picked Tomlinson as the Giant’s most underappreciated player. She noted that in 2019 he earned 19 run stuffs or run plays of zero or negative gain. That was tied for third in the league.
Tomlinson has shown very capable to stop the run and in 2019 showed the ability to pressure the passer. Going into his fourth season on the Giants Tomlinson will tie Johnathan Hankins and Linval Joseph for the most number of seasons a defensive tackle has played for the Giants. They lead Giant defensive tackles for most seasons on the Giants with four seasons. It would appear the Giants have found a keeper in Tomlinson. Tomlinson was a second round pick so the Giants do not have a fifth year option on him. Hopefully they keep Tomlinson around to become the longest playing defensive tackle in Giant history.
