The interest was there and Amani Toomer this offseason nearly took the bait and signed with the Redskins.

“It was closer than people want to think,” Toomer said yesterday.

As a restricted free agent, Toomer nearly handed the Giants a tough decision: Match the Washington offer or let Toomer go and hope to find a replacement with the extra second-round draft pick they would receive as compensation.

It never came to that. Toomer opted to stick with the Giants, and he believes he’s on the verge of signing a multi-year deal that will keep him with the team that used its 1996 second-round pick to pluck him out of Michigan.

Toomer said he expects to agree to a new deal after June 1, once the Giants free up some salary cap room to take care of Toomer and another restricted free agent, left tackle Roman Oben.

“You can’t sign every restricted free agent, but Toomer and Oben are two priorities,” general manager Ernie Accorsi said.

One year after turning around his stagnant career and proving to the Giants that he was worth keeping, Toomer has upped the ante. He exited last week’s veteran minicamp hearing additional praise from Jim Fassel and it appears that he already is far ahead in his competition with Joe Jurevicius for the starting receiver job that opened up when Chris Calloway was released.

“This guy has had a total change,” Fassel said. “He walks around here happy, smiling, he very rarely makes a mistake. I really am excited about him. What we’re trying to get is size receivers who have vertical speed. He’s got that. He can be a weapon for us.”

The threat was real that Toomer would be cut if he did not show significant improvement during last year’s training camp, especially after the Giants used high draft picks on Ike Hilliard, Jurevicius and Brian Alford in part because Toomer was so unproductive. “That tells you something, and if it doesn’t you really are not looking at the signs,” Toomer said.

Instead, he stopped looking to assign blame elsewhere, attended to business as never before and finally showed promise, catching 27 passes for 360 yards and five touchdowns, none more memorable than the game-winning 37-yard scoring missile from Kent Graham that shocked the previously unbeaten Broncos.

Fast-forward to the present, and the 6-foot-3 Toomer – the big, physical receiver the Giants have for so long been searching for – is not only the favorite for a starting job, but will probably soon be rewarded with a new contract. The Giants gave him a low tender, $429,000 for the upcoming season, and Toomer said he very nearly signed a long-term deal with the NFC East-rival Redskins. But he decided that he was comfortable with the Giants.

He could choose to play for his tender and then become an unrestricted free agent following the season, but that is not the direction Toomer is headed. “I feel like I started something here,” Toomer said. “The Giants are the team that drafted me out of college, they had faith in me. I feel like I’ll stick with the Giants.”

Toomer, entering his fourth season, said a major factor in his maturing as a player was his emulating Calloway, who made up for physical limitations with attention to detail that bordered on the obsessive.

“When I first got here I couldn’t understand the things he did,” Toomer said. “Now I understand why he took the game so serious.”

The departure of Calloway, Toomer said, is “bittersweet,” but it does open a door that Toomer intends to walk through. “Starting is pretty important to me,” he said. “This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole career.”