Newly-signed Giants’ offensive lineman is glad to be back home

Tire Phillips’ wide, irrepressible smile told the story. The veteran offensive lineman, who signed to the team’s practice squad this week, is thrilled to back with the New York Giants.

“I love the building here, and the guys. Obviously, it makes sense to go somewhere where you know the playbook, but it was more than just knowing the playbook, because I’m a free agent,” Phillips said when I caught up with him in the locker room on Thursday. “I could have gone anywhere, tried out anywhere, but I knew this place, and this place knew me. “I feel like I found a home here, and man, there’s nothing like being a Giant for me.”

Phillips had a rollercoaster 2023 season. After starting five games and playing well for the Giants in 2022, he did not originally make the team. After being cut, he landed on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles.

A few weeks later, with injuries wrecking the offensive line, the Giants poached Phillips from the Eagles. He started nine games in relief of the injured Evan Neal before tearing a quad muscle in Week 17.

How does Phillips look at last season?

“A lot of things happened, but it’s just a good thing to just be a good locker room guy, just being a great person, and just being a great teammate, and not burn bridges in understanding that this is a business,” Phillips said . “It’s not personal, even though this is my livelihood, and you got to try your hardest to not make it personal, but it’s not personal. This is a business, and you never know, just like the opportunity of me coming back right now.

“So I could have been salty or anything, but what’s that for?”

Phillips, 11 months removed from surgery to repair the torn quad, was only recently cleared to begin working out for teams. He took one workout. With the Giants. Then he joined the team’s practice squad, saying he “100 percent” wanted to return to New York.

Despite the grueling work of rehabbing the first major injury of his career, Phillips called the last year “wonderful.”

“Obviously, last year for me, being cut, practice squad, you know, starting a few games, it was great,” he said. “Obviously, it didn’t end the way I wanted it to end, obviously, right before for agency, but that’s just part of the process with the National Football League.”

Phillips doesn’t know what his role will be. Eleven months after surgery he is just trying to continue getting stronger and acclimating to the way his leg feels.

“It’s a roller coaster,” Phillips said of the recovery process. “It’s very challenging. And still to this day, I stay on top of my body. Luckily, I’m a good pro, but to this day I can tell I had surgery down there.

“I feel strong right now. It’s just when it’s a muscle that you use every day and you can tell it’s a change, that’s the only thing. But I feel strong. I want to be stronger and call it up. But you can tell it feels different.”

Phillips said the injury has forced him to change his routine.

“I have to warm up way more than I used to. But I take the time out to do that. So I’m on the field earlier,” he said. “I’m dressed first because I need to do these different things I’ve got to do this to get the tendon firing up. But, I mean, that just comes with it.

“That don’t stop me from nothing.”