Giants welcome back wide receiver Hakeem Nicks

Hakeem Nicks said he's dogging it already.

The former Giants first-round pick who re-signed with the team Tuesday compared himself to a wayward hound in his first comments after the reunion.

"This is home," Nicks said through the Giants. "You know what they say, 'Let a dog roam, he'll find his way home.' They left the back door open for me."

It's a door that allows traffic in both directions, though. The reason for Nicks' return is because his good friend Victor Cruz was placed on injured reserve with pending calf surgery.

They were once the Giants' dynamic duo at wide receiver for a Super Bowl run. Now Nicks replaces Cruz on the Giants' roster two-thirds of the way through a season in which neither of them has played a snap.

Nicks, 27, was a first-round pick of the Giants in 2009. He left the team as a free agent in 2014 after a series of injuries and a string of less-than-productive seasons. He played for the Colts in 2014 and was with the Titans in training camp in 2015 but was cut at the start of the season.

He had several tryouts -- including one earlier in the season with the Giants -- but was unsigned until Tuesday.

"I told myself, 'Just be patient, man, there's a lot of football left,' " Nicks said. "I knew I could help a lot of teams. I knew once November, December football came around I was going to be getting a phone call. I wanted it to be from here and it happened like this. I'm just ecstatic and happy that I'm back in the building."

Nicks should have no trouble reconnecting with his new quarterback. He has caught more passes (306) for more yards (4,538) from Eli Manning than any other receiver and is second in TD receptions from Manning (26, behind Plaxico Burress' 33). But this is a different offensive system than the one he played in for five seasons with the Giants.

"It's not a bye week for me," Nicks said of the team's schedule without a game this week. "I've got to make sure I'm getting these plays down, so I can be ready to go come game time. It's just going to take some studying, hard work and determination. I've got plenty of that."

Nicks won't be asked to return to his No. 1 receiver role. He'll likely be the fourth receiver behind Odell Beckham Jr., Rueben Randle and Dwayne Harris. It is Harris who mostly has filled Cruz's role in the offense as a slot receiver this season. But Nicks should be able to do something that Cruz wasn't able to: Play.

And he'll do it for the Giants.

"This is where I really wanted to be," he said. "I would have settled and played wherever, but my heart was here. My heart has always been here, ever since I left. That's why I kept my place here. I feel like I'm just stepping right back into position."

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.