"We weren't going to force anything," said Marc Ross, the Giants' director of college scouting. "We don't do that. When you force players and think it's a need, you get burned. We were going to wait for the right person at the right time.
"And we feel strongly Phillip Dillard is that guy."
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They've been tracking Dillard for months, and if McClain was gone, drafting Dillard was apparently their alternate plan. In fact, Giants GM Jerry Reese said they discussed taking the "tough, instinctive, smart, hard-hitting" player one round earlier. They had him rated that highly, and Reese believes he's good enough to compete with veterans Jonathan Goff, Chase Blackburn and Gerris Wilkinson for that vacant starting job.
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Ross said the Giants considered Dillard in Round 3 on Friday, when they took LSU safety Chad Jones instead.
Then they held their breath overnight because they didn't have any other middle linebackers rated "in that range" and might have ended up not taking one in the draft if Dillard was gone.