Giants rookie Dillard getting noticed with intense, combative style

ALBANY - Phillip Dillard could have gotten into it with anyone. The always cantankerous Rich Seubert seems to be involved in a scuffle every training camp, so he might have made a good target. Or he could have locked horns with another rookie who is trying to catch the eyes of the coaching staff.

But no. Dillard wound up shoving and yelling and, after they were separated, shoving and yelling some more with Pro Bowl guard Chris Snee. You know, the son-in-law of the head coach and one of the most respected players on the team?

"I'm not going to be punked," Dillard said of the heated exchange on the practice field earlier this week. "So, end of story."

Although no one condones fights on the field, they like to see fire. And they have seen it from Dillard in the first two weeks of the preseason. He's made plays, run the second- and third-team defenses, and shown that he has what it takes to be an NFL-caliber middle linebacker.

"He's combative, he's competitive," Tom Coughlin said. "In a good way."

"He takes control, which is what you have to do as a Mike," linebackers coach Jim Herrmann said. "I do like his tenacity."

Even veteran linebacker Keith Bulluck, who is technically competing against Dillard for playing time, said he likes the attitude he sees - and hears - from the rookie.

"At middle linebacker, you're not supposed to be [timid]," Bulluck said. When it was pointed out that some middle linebackers are, Bulluck shrugged. "Well," he said, "those people don't make it long."

Dillard certainly has the mind-set to play the position. Now he has to show that he has the skills, as well. That tryout begins for real Monday night when the Giants open the preseason against the Jets. Jonathan Goff has held down the starting job throughout training camp, so he'll likely get the first few series of work in the game. Bulluck, who is only seven months removed from ACL surgery, will not play.

That would leave Dillard behind the wheel of the Giants' defense for the majority of the game. How has it been so far driving a machine like that?

"It's fun," he said. "It feels normal. Just out there playing football and calling plays with the other 10 guys, it's fun."

Even when he tussles with teammates. That altercation started when Snee apparently thought that Dillard was showing a little too aggressive in a non-contact drill. It's a common disagreement between veterans who know how to pace themselves through training camp and rookies who are not sure when to slow down, so they don't.

"It wasn't that I was more intense about it; it was just that I was going hard to the ball," Dillard said. "I'm going to go hard and I'm going to run to the ball and I'm going to play fast and physical. They didn't draft me to come here and walk through plays. They drafted me to come here to play fast and physical and do what they demand of me. That's what I'm going to do."

Besides, Dillard added, "I wasn't even going that hard."

It was certainly enough to get Snee's attention. And Dillard's reaction to that gained him more respect than anything he's done so far in camp. Standing up to a veteran without blinking gave him the cred that a middle linebacker needs in the huddle and on the sideline.

"Other guys said to keep playing fast and physical," Dillard said. "That's how you play the game. That's how we're going to play as the New York Giant defense. We're not going to back down from anybody."