Just how much do the Giants miss him?
Former New York Giants turned Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney has been named the NFC Player Of The Month for October.
McKinney earned Player Of The Month honors after a spectacular October that has seen him rack up 19 tackles (one for a loss), three passes defensed, two interceptions, and a fumble recovery.
The Giants originally drafted with the 36th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. And while his time with the Giants was marked by injury (notably a fractured foot as a rookie and then a fractured hand in 2022), he played well for the Giants during his first four seasons.
However, he didn’t play quite well enough to off-set Joe Schoen’s view of positional value and the Giants didn’t get into a bidding war for his services. That’s proven to be a mistake, as he has played spectacularly well for the Packers, racking up a career-high six interceptions (and seven passes defensed) through his first eight games, eclipsing the five interceptions he had in 16 games in 2021.
That year he had 93 total tackles, and 10 passes defensed in addition to his 5 interceptions (one returned for a touchdown).
McKinney seems to be a much better fit in Jeff Hafley’s defensive scheme than Wink Martindale’s. The Packers primarily play Cover-3, with Cover-1 and Cover-2 shells mixed in, and usually use McKinney as the free safety in those shells. That affords him more opportunities to use his football IQ and vision to make quarterbacks pay for mistakes. The Packers have only sent McKinney on a blitz three (three) times this season, as opposed to the 28 and 42 times Martindale blitzed McKinney in 2022 and 2023.
McKinney is much better in coverage than rushing the passer, and is currently allowing just 50 percent of passes to be completed when he’s in coverage, with a passer rating allowed of just 42.4. That’s opposed to the mere six pressures, four hurries, and 1.5 sacks he had in the previous two years combined.
Some fans are still upset that Schoen let McKinney go, and this won’t help matters any. It’s fair to wonder just how good he could be in Shane Bowen’s zone-based defense with the likes of Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Azeez Ojulari applying pressure.
If there’s any silver lining in this, McKinney is the second safety drafted highly by the Giants in recent years to win Player Of The Month honors. Landon Collins got the award as well during his historic 2016 campaign. That may bode well for the future of Tyler Nubin, who has stepped in as McKinney’s replacement.
