EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The building is the same, as are the locker room and the practice fields. But everything else about the start of Andrew Adams' second tenure with the Giants is vastly different than the beginning of his first stint with the team.

In 2016, Adams was an undrafted rookie from UConn who soaked up lessons from his experienced teammates while hoping to stick around long enough to play in a regular-season game. Now, the roster, the coaching staff and much of the support staff are new. He's a seven-year veteran, a former Super Bowl champion and a mentor to younger players. 

"It's crazy," Adams, 28, said today. "I'm the oldest guy in the (defensive backs room).

"It was always a great place to be when I was here as a rookie and a second-year player. They treat the players the way we should be treated. They treat us as people, as human beings, and you kind of feel that instantly when you walk in the building." 

The Giants this week re-signed Adams, who played the last four seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was on the Bucs team that defeated Kansas City in Super Bowl LV following the 2020 season.  

Adams played his first two seasons with the Giants. As a rookie in 2016, he played in 14 regular-season games with 13 starts and started the NFC Wild Card Game – still the Giants' most recent postseason game. Adams and Sterling Shepard are the only current Giants who played in that game.

"Me and Shep came in together," Adams said. "From that 2016 team, Shep is the only one still here, but there's still some familiar faces in the building."

The following year, he played in all 16 games with four starts. His two-year totals included 73 tackles (59 solo), one interception and seven passes defensed. Adams said he would not have been as successful without assistance from his experienced friends in the secondary.

"DRC (former cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie) helped me," Adams said. "Landon (Collins) was still young, but he helped because he had some experience under his belt. And then we had (former corner) Janoris (Jenkins) as well. We had a good group in the DB room. I think we meshed well."

Adams was forced to exit the room when the Giants cut him on Sept. 1, 2018. Three weeks later, he signed with Tampa Bay. Adams was in training camp in 2019 with Detroit and in 2021 with Detroit. Each time, he was released and then re-signed by the Buccaneers. In four seasons in Tampa, he played in 57 games with 18 starts and played in seven postseason games. 

After the Bucs elected not to re-sign him this year, Adams was a free agent throughout the offseason. General manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll brought him back because they believe Adams can still play and he can help develop young defensive backs like Aaron Robinson, Cor'Dale Flott, Darnay Holmes and Dane Belton. 

"I'm a veteran," Adams said. "I've been through ups. I've been through the highs and the lows. Just being about to provide that wisdom that veteran leadership on the field and off the field, being able to help the young guys in the DB room and also being able to be a leader on special teams.

"That's what I try to do with the young guys. Try to coach them, tell them to trust the process. Day-in-and-day-out, give it your all. Learn, and things will go in the right direction."

That's exactly where Adams hopes to lead the Giants.  

*Maybe Adams had a rapid influence, because three defensive backs made standout contributions, including two on the same play, in practice today. Rookie safety Dane Belton jumped high in the end zone to intercept a long Daniel Jones pass for David Sills. And Darnay Holmes forced a fumble by Saquon Barkley that Julian Love recovered and returned for a touchdown.

*Jones later fired a strike to another rookie, wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson, for a touchdown.

*Center Jon Feliciano did not practice for the second consecutive day as he deals with heat and hydration issues. "He's grinding through it," Daboll said. Jamil Douglas again stepped in to take/make most of the first-team snaps. But Shane Lemieux moved over from left guard to play some center, with rookie Josh Ezeudu taking over at guard.

*Tight end Ricky Seals-Jones also missed a second day of practice.

*The first skirmish of camp included defensive linemen Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams and offensive counterparts Mark Glowinski and Lemieux. It was quickly broken up.

*Daboll on linebacker Azeez Ojulari, who is on the reserve/non-football injury list with a hamstring issue.

"He's working through it," Daboll said. "I don't want to give you a timetable, but he's gotten better."

*The players are off tomorrow. On Monday, Daboll will see his players in full pads for the first time. 

"This is great," Daboll said of the early camp work. "There's a lot of good teaching out here. It's really like I said in the spring - it's a teaching camp. It's competitive because there's fans and the nature of training camp. But the evaluation process of the things that they need to do physically and they're able to do that and really exert that a little bit more, I think we're all waiting for that."

Like all coaches, Daboll conceded that players can't fully prepare for the rigors of the season without donning full gear and hitting in practice.

"The physical side, we're not quite there yet...we don't have pads on yet," Daboll said. "So, it's kind of like spring. I'm big on making sure we're taking care of our players. It's the nature of the competition. The D-line is getting a bit of power push in the pocket, and we're trying to hold off on that the best we can. And you can see, there's not a lot of runs out there right now. And that's by design. That's another reason why we've done third down early on, because we have no pads on. When you get to third-and-six plus, it's – I don't know, you guys can tell me the stats, 95 percent pass? So, the pass rush and everything, we're trying to do things to make it difficult on one side early on, and then when we get the pads we kind of …"

On Monday, we'll get a sense of how to complete that sentence.