Newly signed Giants’ offensive lineman is happy to be back home

Tyre Phillips’ wide, irrepressible smile told the story. The veteran offensive lineman, who signed to the team’s practice squad this week, is excited to back up 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 anywhere, but I knew this place and this place knew me. I feel like I’ve found a home here, and man, there’s nothing like being a Giant for me.”

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

A few weeks later, with injuries ravaging 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 view last season?

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

“So I could have been salty or something, but what kind of thing?”

Phillips, 11 months removed from surgery to repair the torn quad, was only recently cleared to begin training for teams. He took a workout. With the giants. So joined the team’s practice squad and said 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, getting 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 the 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’s just trying to continue to get stronger and get used to how his leg feels.

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

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

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

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

“It doesn’t stop me from anything.”