After arriving in town, Justin Pugh picked up a rental car Monday night and headed to MetLife Stadium, where he planned to watch the Giants-Seahawks game from a friends’ suite.

He did not make it for kickoff.

“I missed the first freaking drive because there was an accident on Route 3 and it was a standstill,’’ Justin Pugh told The Post on Tuesday. “I was like, ‘This is my welcome back to New Jersey’ moment.’’

Welcome back, indeed.

The Giants are calling on one of their former first-round draft picks to help solve the most glaring reason they are off to a 1-3 start to this season: their shabby offensive line.

Pugh, with 119 NFL starts on his résumé, was signed to the practice squad, which he hopes will be a temporary assignment before he gets up to speed and finds his way onto the field.

The addition comes one day after the Giants gave up 11 sacks in a 24-3 loss to the Seahawks.

Pugh, 33, arrived from Syracuse in 2013 as the No. 19 overall pick and spent five years with the Giants, playing tackle and guard, before moving on to the Cardinals for the past five seasons. He tore his right ACL in Week 6 in 2022.

There were offers from about 10 teams, Pugh said, all basically offering the same thing.

“Every team told me I was going to have to go on the practice squad and prove my knee is healthy or else I wasn’t gonna play this year,’’ he said.

Selecting the Giants out of that group was an easy decision for him.

“I get to come back to the city, obviously I love New York, I love New Jersey, I love the fan base,’’ Pugh said. “The Giants drafted me, took a shot on me and now I’m kinda doing the opposite, I’m repaying the favor and decided to come back. I think it’s a win-win for both sides.’’

The state of the Giants’ offensive line is chaotic.

Left tackle Andrew Thomas has missed the past three games with a strained hamstring.

Rookie starting center John Michael Schmitz went out against Seattle with a shoulder injury in the first quarter, blocking on a failed quarterback sneak.

Later in the game, guard Shane Lemieux was forced out with a groin issue.

Josh Ezeudu is playing out of position filling in for Thomas, second-year Marcus McKethan has been force-fed a starting job at right guard and right tackle

Evan Neal has not come close to living up to expectations as the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 draft.

How Pugh can help remains to be seen.

He prefers to play left guard but knows he has to come in, show his knee is sound, learn the playbook and then the Giants will figure out where he can help.

He lives in the Phoenix area and he and his wife are expecting their first child in January.

He has dabbled in real estate as a second career but did not give up his quest to leave football on his own terms after sustaining the knee injury last October.

Pugh said he felt a pang of familiarity as he entered the Giants practice facility to sign his practice-squad deal and was heartened to see that the offensive line room was in the same place that he left it in 2017. The only current Giants player remaining from Pugh’s days is wide receiver Sterling Shepard.

“Basically it’s a tryout, I’m going on the practice squad to try out for the active roster and get a real contract,’’ Pugh said. “There’s no place I’d rather do it at than New York.’’

Pugh is listed at 6-foot-5 and 311 pounds but that is not him anymore.

He said he weighs 290 and plays with more aggressiveness than he did when he was heavier.

To make room on the practice squad, the Giants terminated the contract of special teamer Taiwan Jones.