Former Giants Safety Xavier McKinney Reveals Thoughts About First Game Against Old Team

In any other week, the return of safety Xavier McKinney, the New York Giants’ second-round draft pick in 2020, would have been among the headlines ahead of the Giants-Green Bay Packers Week 11 tilt.

While that storyline has been pushed to the back burner, McKinney, who flourished into a first-team All-Pro safety with the Packers, is keeping things real ahead of his first game against his old team.

“I don’t get into all that (emotion),” McKinney said, per Green Bay Packers On SI. “I just try to go out there and play a good game, regardless of who I’m playing, try to go out there and be productive and be the player that I know I am.

“It’d be fun just to be back in the city, though, and get to see a lot of old faces and familiar faces. But it should be fun, though. This is my first time playing the Giants since I've been gone, so I’m definitely (going to) be juiced up, but it’s all out of good intention and just looking to have a good game.”

The Packers (5-3-1) are looking to get right against the Giants after dropping their last two contests against the Panthers and Eagles, two games in which a field goal decided the final scores.

In fact, all three of Green Bay’s losses this season were close ones, decided by three points, while its defense has surrendered 74 points (18.5 points per game) in its last four contests.

“We just got to be better,” McKinney said regarding the Packers on the whole. “Think that’s pretty much the consensus of everything. I think as a whole – obviously, we're going to win as a team, we're going to lose as a team, and right now, we have two back-to-back Ls. So, we got to figure out how to turn it around as a team and get a win.”

For the Packers, a win will help them keep pace in the competitive NFC North. For the Giants, who upset Green Bay 24-22 two years ago on Monday Night Football with backup quarterback Tommy DeVito under center, another upset win will do wonders for a team that has gone through a whirlwind of emotion this week following the dismissal of head coach Brian Daboll.

More importantly, at least for Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka, being able to add to the team’s barren win total this year could go a long way toward convincing general manager Joe Schoen to include his name on the short list of head coaching candidates that will be assembled and vetted after the season comes to a close in eight weeks.

Kafka, however, isn’t viewing his interim appointment as an audition for the future.

“My only focus is just the players,” he said on Wednesday. “We need to make sure, as a group, as a staff, we come together, put together a great plan, and really just focus on what the most important thing is.

“That's our practice, our prep, the meetings that we're in, the communication, and then just working through the details of the game plan because things are going to change and we've got to be able to have some flexibility and adapt to it.”

The Giants and Packers get underway at MetLife Stadium on Sunday at 1:05 PM ET (FOX).

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