In a move that allows the New York Giants to keep their secondary intact, the team has retained free safety Omar Stoutmire, plucking him back out of the unrestricted pool with a three-year contract agreement.

The deal is worth about $3 million.

Perilously shy of salary cap space, the club made some minor roster moves earlier in the week to carve out enough room for Stoutmire, who generated modest interest from other teams during his two weeks in free agency.

While the six-year veteran is hardly noted as a big-play defender, and has just four interceptions for his career, and none since 1999, he is steady and aware and plays the run very effectively. In the New York defense, the lines between the free safety and strong safety positions have blurred, and the team feels Stoutmire is a good fit for their job description.

Stoutmire is coming off a 2002 season in which he was a full-time starter for the first time since 1998, and in which the former Fresno State star notched a career-best 81 tackles. After starting only 19 games in the first five years of his NFL tenure, he started all 16 last season.

He began the season having not started a contest since 1999.

Stoutmire, 28, has appeared in 92 games, has 211 tackles and four sacks, in addition to his four interceptions. He is also a solid special teams performer.

The much-traveled safety began his career in Dallas, as a seventh-round pick in the 1997 draft. He was released early in the 1999 season, was claimed off waivers by Cleveland, and subsequently cut by the Browns. He signed with the New York Jets in Oct. 1999, then moved to the Giants in 2000.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.