For Dalvin Tomlinson, Less Has Been More

Since having his snaps reduced, Tomlinson has seen his production improve.

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Giants defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson’s 2019 season is a perfect example of the adage, “less is more.”

Last year, Tomlinson averaged nearly 40 snaps per game, finishing with 18 pressures (with no sacks) and 36 tackles, 27 for a loss.

This year, Tomlinson, after an initial sluggish start, has averaged 36 snaps per game, and has seen his production improve to the tune of 14 total pressures )(with four sacks), 23 tackles but with 24 stops, and a forced fumble.

“He’s just been steady all year long,” head coach Pat Shurmur said Monday during his conference call with reporters.

“He contacts the ball really well for a defensive lineman. I don’t know what anybody outside the building gives him grade-wise officially, but for a guy who’s kind of a big kind of a run-stopper type guy, I find him to be very disruptive.”

That didn’t initially appear to be the case early on in the season. Per Pro Football Focus, Tomlinson, a starter, recorded three tackles and three assists to go along with three stops in 170 snaps in his first five games this season.

In Week 6 against the Patriots, he played in a season-high 52 snaps, delivering six tackles. But since Week 8 against the Lions, Tomlinson, who except for Week 14 against the Eagles when he played 53 snaps, has averaged around 33.3 snaps and has recorded at least one pressure in each of those games, with seven of his 14 season pressures coming in the last three weeks.

Shurmur, however, wasn’t so quick to attribute the surge in Tomlinson’s production to the reduction in snaps.

“I don’t know if that’s the reason for it,” he said. “He plays hard, he’s tough, he’s really all the things you’re looking for in a player, and I certainly appreciate what he’s done.”

But at the same time, having a rotation has always been an objective. With Tomlinson, B.J. Hill, Dexter Lawrence, R.J. McIntosh, and Leonard Williams now in the mix, the Giants have been able to use that rotation to their advantage, which in turn has helped some of the individual players to be more productive.

“I think it is a good thing to get a little bit of a rotation there so that they can—I don’t want to say remain fresh—but remain sort of powerful and quick throughout the game,” Shurmur said.

“If you’ve got enough good players in there, you can rotate them all through, and then they all have production.”

Shurmur admitted that it can be a fine line to walk between managing a defensive lineman’s snaps in the rotation versus sticking with the hot hand, but in the end, keeping the defensive linemen fresh via a rotation seems to be the Giants preferred way of operating.

“It’s a fine line, but I think the best-case scenario is you have six or seven guys that you can rotate in there, and you feel confident that they’re going to do a good job throughout the game,” he said.