Justin Tuck takes great care not to be the stereotypical former professional athlete pouring "This is how we did it in my day" stories into a half-attentive younger ear.

But then he noticed Landon Collins listening to tales of behind-the-scenes leadership on the way to winning two Super Bowls. And asking questions. And wanting more details.

And so Tuck gradually has become a sounding board and unofficial mentor for Collins in a relationship binding the last great Giants' vocal defensive leader to the player best poised to fill the shoes moving forward.

"He's one of the guys you want to groom to be that guy because he is one of the best players," Tuck told NJ Advance Media. "As time has evolved, he did it kind of how I did it: Slowly putting himself in those situations. I've told him he needs to be that guy."

The Giants' plan to flip the locker room culture after a 3-13 season can be seen in the offseason trade of Jason Pierre-Paul and the additions of several veterans with either a commanding or calming presence.

But it could be the two-time Pro Bowler Collins who emerges in first-year head coach Pat Shurmur's locker room ... if he can channel his inner Tuck.

"Being a leader is tough: You have to make fast decisions and be an outspoken person and you have to gain the respect of others so they will listen to you," Collins told NJ Advance Media. "It's hard, but it's a role I'll always take heavy on my heart."

It's not that Tuck and Collins meet every Friday for coffee or schedule regular phone call progress reports. But they inevitably find each other at various functions -- like the Landon Collins Celebrity Softball Game -- and the conversation picks up where it left off: Unified leadership.

"They have all the talent," Tuck said. "I feel like that's the missing piece. When you have differing opinions being voiced in that locker room, it's pulling a team apart -- even if that's not the intent.

"If you are saying the same things and you have all the veterans backing it 100 percent, then that's how we are doing it. Regardless of if it is right or wrong, if you have people pulling the rope in the same direction, you normally do better."

Tuck, who left the Giants in 2014 and retired in 2016, and Collins never were teammates.

But from their chats Collins gains "a sense of a person who is a veteran and a future Hall of Famer, who knows what he's talking about, knows what he's doing, who won championships.

"I'm taking his knowledge on how to teach my guys to be able to come to me, and me speak with them whenever I need to about certain things."

The Giants Way

Tuck was entering his fourth season in 2008 when the retired Michael Strahan suddenly needed replacing.

Collins, a former co-captain for college football national champion Alabama and a 2015 second-round draft pick, is entering his fourth and first in the void of two-year defensive captain Jonathan Casillas.

"For me to go out and try to be Michael Strahan wasn't genuine," Tuck said. "When he left, I took some of those things, but I also made it personal. I made it Justin. I told Landon, 'Don't do what you did at Alabama. Do what you are doing in New York, but do it in your own way.'"

While trying to speed up the process against the backdrop of tumult, Collins made some high-profile missteps in the last seven months:

He called teammate

He relayed a second-hand message that

"It should've never been to the media," Collins said. "At the end of the day, we've got to be able to talk. We have to keep what's going on between us."

Shurmur publicly chastised Collins for speaking out of turn -- Collins says his message was misunderstood and he wanted to back Flowers -- but neither incident has discouraged Collins from chasing after the captain's 'C.'

"There are a lot of great guys on that defense that can be captain," Collins said during the Heath & Fitness Expo at MetLife Stadium. "I'd like to have the 'C' on my chest, but it's up to my guys."

The past-to-present bridge developing with Tuck is what Shurmur had in mind when he called Giants greats like Tuck, Tiki Barber and others during his first week on the job.

"He said, 'We're not successful if we don't do things in The Giants Way, and I need to learn The Giants Way,'" said Tuck, whose mentoring contributions also include the Newark Mentoring Movement.

"That set the tone early of what it's going to be. Egos get in the way sometimes. You could tell right away he wasn't an ego guy. His only objective was to be successful, and do it in a way that all alumni could be proud of."

Building partnerships

The first part of leadership is wanting to accept the challenge. The second is much trickier.

On a team of 53-90 players, with so much time spent in individual position groups, there is ample opportunity for dissent or confusion as 2017 showed. When safety Antrel Rolle joined the Giants in 2010, Tuck found someone with whom to share responsibility.

"Antrel still calls me 'Cap' and I call him 'Cap,'" Tuck said. "Trust me, we had our differences of opinion, but we knew we had to be on the same ground. He had his way of doing things, and I had my way of doing things. At the end of the day, our message was the same."

The Giants added big-money free agents Olivier Vernon and Damon Harrison in 2016, but Alec Ogletree might prove to be the most willing vocal partner for Collins based on the spring practices.

"You have to have partnerships," Tuck said. "You have to have the veteran guys on that team on the same page. We had to come to some even ground where the story I was telling the young guys of how we do it here was the same story you got from Antrel, from Eli (Manning), from Zak DeOssie on special teams. You can't have a different narrative in your ranks."

Collins will visit with teammates stationed in New Jersey, Florida, Texas and Georgia during the offseason and maintains a group chat with several teammates.

"We're all grown men. We all have our visions of things," Collins said. "As we grow as individuals, as men, as a brotherhood, we have to know our dislikes, our confidence zones, where we meet in the middle. If we don't, there is always going to be head-banging all the time."

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find our Giants coverage on Facebook.