Giants Safety Xavier McKinney Outlines High Expectations for Self in Third NFL Season
Sometimes time flies, and sometimes it drags.
For Giants third-year safety Xavier McKinney, who said his two years in the NFL have "felt like six," it's been the latter. That's thanks to a combination of the pandemic and the Giants having struggled to find their way in the NFL landscape ever since they plucked the former Alabama star in the second round of the 2020 draft.
But with things having returned to normal as far as the pandemic safety guidelines, McKinney is not only finding the meeting rooms within the facility--the last two years, he's been in temporary rooms inside the team's field house--he's also starting to find more of a comfort level.
On the field, McKinney has made a very strong case to be counted among the team's new foundation that general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll are putting in place. In 23 games played--his rookie season was shortened due to a broken foot suffered late in training camp--McKinney has six interceptions and 118 total tackles.
He finished as Pro Football Focus's top-rated Giants defender in 2021 and had the fourth-best coverage grade and the fifth-best run defense grade. He also finished second among the team's defensive backs in solo tackles behind former teammate Logan Ryan.
"I think I've done a lot of good things very well. I think I’ve figured out a lot of things," McKinney said. "I still have a lot of improvement to continue to grow. But as far as laying a foundation-wise, I think I've done that. I think I've learned a lot.
"I've seen a lot of different things throughout these two years that I've been here. Now I think it's time to step it up a notch and go a little further with it and just keep building on from what I've already built."
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Off the field, McKinney is making an equally strong case to emerge as a team leader, perhaps even earning the coveted "C" on his chest this fall from his teammates.
"Yeah, my goal has always been the same from day one," McKinney said. "I've always wanted to be and was going to be a leader; that has not changed no matter who's here, who's not here. So that's how I see it, and that's how I go with it."
No pressure then?
"As I’ve said, I've been a leader for a long time, so this is nothing new. I don't see it as something that's bigger than what it was before because it's just who I am. There's no added pressure or anything like that. It’s who I am, and it's what I do," he said.
Before McKinney can worry about his worthiness to earn the "C" on his chest, there's a matter of learning the new, aggressive defensive style that coordinator Don Martindale plans to install.
"I’m really excited for it," McKinney said of the new system. "I think we all are as a defense, just coming into it knowing it's going to be something new, knowing that it’s an aggressive play style. We’ll all be prepared and ready for the challenge, but I think it'll be really fun being in this new defense."
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