Last season, there was a mutiny among members of the New York Giants’ secondary against the coaching staff. Three stars — Pro Bowlers Janoris Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, along with former first round pick Eli Apple — all took turns getting suspended by then-head coach Ben McAdoo.

With McAdoo gone, replaced by the more-seasoned Pat Shurmur, the Giants want to avoid another rift and Shurmur is doing all he can to mend fences and build a solid relationship with the group.

First, he eliminated the two-coach responsibility that Tom Coughlin began a decade ago and put one coach in charge of both the safeties and the cornerbacks.

Lou Anarumo, who has been coaching defensive backs on the college and pro level for over a quarter century, was brought in to run the unit. He has been met with great results, as has defensive coordinator James Bettcher.

But the big difference in the tone of the team and locker-room has been Shurmur. He has taken a genuine interest in his players regardless of position, not only on the field and in the locker room, but in the team cafeteria as well.

“Yeah, he eats in there a lot with us,” said Jenkins. “He’ll come by, sit with us and talk it up. He asks us what we think about the defense, I like that. It’s rare, but its cool because you earn the trust of the guys on the team. It lets you know that your head coach is not scared to come up and talk to you as a person or as a man. Communication is key, as we all know.”

And communication is one of the things that was lacking under McAdoo. Shurmur is breath of fresh air compared to him. Jenkins and the other members of the secondary were surprised the first time the head coach joined them for lunch. It was out of the ordinary at 1925 Giants Drive.

“Yeah, because it was unexpected,” added Jenkins. “You are in the lunch room eating with your teammates and the head coach walks up. It’s like we are either in trouble or he is coming to talk, and then he comes to talk, chat it up and have fun.”

And fun is the theme these days for the Giants’ defense. The attitude is making all the hard work seem worth it this year.

“We are still working back there,” said Jenkins. “We have a lot of things to improve on. I think we are focused on technique, and playing fast within the scheme, we are going to be pretty good.”

After a 3-13 season that was filled with disappointment and injury, Jenkins is looking for the defense to get back on track to where he was in 2016, the year he was named to the Pro Bowl.

“Everybody is hungry,” he said. “We understand that we have a lot of talent on this team and people are not going to just beat us, it’s just us making mistakes to beat ourselves. If we keep doing everything right and get everybody in position playing football, we’ll be okay.”