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Giants D-Line gets boost with B.J. Hill in 3rd Round

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The Giants selected NC State's B.J. Hill in the 3rd Round:

You get a hog molly. And you get a hog molly.

General manager Dave Gettleman kept both sides of the draft room happy on Friday night by handing out prized prospects to the offense and defense. First, he selected Will Hernandez, a 6-foot-2, 327-pound guard from UTEP, to start the second round. Thirty-five picks later, the Giants took 311-pound defensive tackle B.J. Hill from N.C. State.


NFL DRAFT
> A Giant Decision: Inside the Draft Room
> O-Line rebuild continues with Will Hernandez
> Experts react to Giants' Day 2 picks
> Giants draft Lorenzo Carter at 66th
> DT B.J. Hill selected at number 69
> Saquon Barkley ready to make impact
> Inside the Saquon Barkley selection


"That game inside between those hog mollies, that is a violent, violent workplace," Gettleman said. "If those guys aren't tough, you've got no chance, you've got no chance and that's what B.J. – he's a tough kid just like Hernandez is a tough kid. Lack of toughness inside, it's going to catch up to you somewhere along the line. At some point in your season, lack of toughness will catch up."

Plan your trip to training camp now. The two rookies will make for a fun competition to watch when the pads come on in the hog days of summer.

"There was definitely excitement in the room because we had a consensus between the scouts and the coaches of what we thought of these guys and we liked them a great deal, so [the defensive coaches] were excited that they were available for us to pick," head coach Pat Shurmur said. "Yeah, we addressed a couple issues. He's probably the counterpart to Will Hernandez, kind of a gritty, tough guy on the other side of the line and he's got youth, he's got health on his side, plays extremely hard and we're excited to have him."

That comes from a father happy to have his son out of Hill's way.

Shurmur's son, Kyle, is the starting quarterback at Vanderbilt. The Wolfpack sacked him five times in the 2016 Camping World Independence Bowl.

"I do remember that, we did talk about that," Hill said. "That did come up not too long ago." There were no hard feelings when Hill got the draft call.

"B.J. Hill, he's tough to block," Shurmur said. "He's good against the run, he's kind of a little bit sneaky getting his pass rush, so we'll get a little pass rush out of him as well and he played on a really good defensive line. He was a very, very productive guy and I'll tell you what, when I had him on the phone, I could barely hear him – the people in the background were going absolutely crazy and he was probably as excited as anyone to get up here and get going."

"I think I bring a smart player and a physical [player] who loves to compete with the best of the best," Hill said. "That's what my dream is, play with the best of the best and compete against them. And I bring hard work. I bring everything to the table. My leadership, just going down the line, I bring it all."

Hill, who played on the same N.C. State line as fifth overall pick Bradley Chubb, will now team up alongside All-Pro Damon Harrison and Dalvin Tomlinson, last year's second-round choice.

"Ideally, there will be a rotation there, so they'll roll through it," Shurmur said. "I think that's what you're seeing now. Whether you play a five-on-the-line front or a lot of the time you're in a four-man front, you see a rotation and that's the best way to play our guys. So hopefully when we have good candidates to play those positions, we can get a little rotation there that will keep them all fresher throughout the game and then limit their reps throughout the season, so that they can play longer, hopefully into the playoffs."

The depth on the defensive front has been an issue for the Giants in recent years, with Olivier Vernon's snap count among the highest in the NFL for defensive linemen.

"It's one of those deals where you'd like to keep your starters in around 75 percent," Gettleman said. "You'd like your backups to be good enough to be 35, take away the three, 25 percent instead of 35. That's the ideal world. You look at what Philly did last year and they were rolling them in and out. What that does and the other thing that is the kind of unseen part of it is that if you're playing Philadelphia and you're an offensive lineman, you might see seven different guys in a pass rush situation – those guys better study for those seven different guys or else they're going to get their fannies beat."

That equation worked pretty well for the Eagles last year.

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