WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — The longest-tenured Giant wanted a “Tom Coughlin-esque” quality in his fifth different head coach, and he certainly felt heard after the hiring of John Harbaugh.

“I definitely think he’s what we needed,” receiver Darius Slayton said after Saturday’s practice, when he was reminded of his words as the coaching search was getting underway in January. “There’s definitely been a sense of accountability off the rip, which has been huge for us. Overall, there’s no room for anybody to just do whatever they want. Everybody has to be on time, everybody has to show effort at practice — or you’ll be held accountable.”

Recovered from offseason sports hernia surgery on both legs that he put off for all of last season, Slayton is practicing with the starters in a completely revamped receiver room that includes newcomers Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin, Braxton Berrios, Juju Smith-Schuster and rookie Malachi Fields.

And, of course, the return of icon Odell Beckham Jr., who was traded from the Giants to the Browns in March 2019, one month before Slayton was drafted.

“I literally just missed Odell on the front end — he almost felt like a fake unicorn, mythical creature that departed before I came,” Slayton said. “There’s a lot of really good football players in our room right now. It’s raised the competition level.”

Slayton, 29, is coming off a disappointing season in which his numbers dropped to 37 catches for 538 yards and one touchdown despite receiver Malik Nabers’ 13-game absence.

How does he rebound?

“First and foremost is getting healthy — I need to be able to run and move how I am accustomed to,” Slayton said. “Honestly, once that’s all done, I believe I’ll play to a level that I need to play at.”

Slayton cited injuries as a “good bit” of a factor in his drop-off.

“I’m not a big excuse person,” he added. “I could’ve played better regardless. But it’s different when maybe you are used to being able to catch the ball a little bit easier and you’re having to strain a little bit more and come up an inch short here or there. But, at the end of the day, if you are out there, you have to make it happen.”

Slayton’s six drops irked fans, but he is getting clean slate and could become a Harbaugh favorite because of his downfield speed and run-blocking willingness.

“I like him,” Harbaugh said. “Hard worker, very determined, wants to do well. I think he’s getting his strength back, basically. [Thursday], he looked really fast. I feel like he’s on his way back and looking for big things.”

The playbook used by former head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was notoriously complex for receivers.

Slayton’s mastery of it and ability to translate to others added to his value.

How does the offense being installed by Matt Nagy compare to its predecessor?

For starters, it doesn’t pigeonhole any receiver as the deep threat or the short-field target, or restrict any one receiver to a limited route tree.

“It really has just been a mixed bag of everybody getting a shot at almost everything,” Slayton said. “It’s a little simpler as far as conceptually, but it has a lot of variety to it – you could end up in a lot of different spots. Our last offense, you just had to hard-memorize a lot of things, whereas this one is a little more intuitive. There are clues in the play call, so to speak, where you know, ‘If I hear this word or that word, either I know exactly what I have or I have an idea of what I have.’”

While other receivers are battling for roster spots, Slayton’s spot alongside Malik Nabers is safe.

The Giants would only save about $161,000 of his $15.9 million salary-cap charge if he was released.

“Everybody keeps trying to put me in the Old Guy role,” said Slayton, who is younger than Beckham, Berrios and Smith-Schuster, “so trying to shake that narrative. Other than that, I feel like I’ve been kind of a glue guy, a do-it-all guy.”

Slayton was a first-time captain last season and now stands alone as the only Giant for each of the last eight seasons, following the offseason trade of draft classmate Dexter Lawrence.

He went 36-80-1 under Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, Daboll and Kafka (interim) to make it to Harbaugh.

“Already in this camp, he’s already kind of expressed that … if somebody’s not doing something up to the echelon that you want them to, you go to them, you make it clear to them that that’s not what we’re going to do around here, then they have a chance to respond,” Slayton said. “He has gotten a positive response out of the individuals that he’s done that with. So, I think that’s really big for a football team.”