Nothing about Xavier McKinney’s first two months in the NFL has been anything but normal.
Having to watch the virtual draft in his own home to watch the Giants’ off-season training activities while opening his laptop, regular NFL indoctrination was thrown out the window.
But McKinney, the Giants’ second-round pick, was never one of those who settled for standard anyway. He prospered while moving away from the norm – as free security who often queued with strong security, the cornerback, the linebacker and linebacker of Alabama, the college stud who called his high school coaches after games to ask him what he could do best, and the creative spirit that designs and designs his own tattoos when he stops working in the field.
Perhaps that’s what makes McKinney well-prepared to get straight into the role of choke if and when the season starts in September, despite the unusual circumstances.
“The thing that separated him was that he wanted to be uncomfortable in a room full of other dogs,” said Jermale Ransby, the defensive line trainer at Roswell High School in Georgia. “He wanted to make sure he was the best dog. Just his work ethic, he’s probably the most consistent kid I’ve seen in this group of all these guys who [went on to] play in college.
“As young children would say, he brought a lot of drops.”
Jermaine Phillips had followed the path McKinney wanted to take – from Roswell to the SEC via the NFL to a Super Bowl, where Phillips won a ring with the Buccaneers as a rookie in 2002. Former security himself, Phillips returned to high school. alma mater was a defensive back coach in 2014, while McKinney was a sophomore.
The staff Phillips joined had already started to learn more about McKinney. Head coach John Ford had heard of him when he was an eighth grade student and had taken note of him when the college team trained on the field after university. He went to one of their games, saw McKinney playing and said to himself, “Holy cow. This kid has juice for him. “
“As young children would say, he brought a lot of drops.” – Jermale Ransby, the defensive line coach at Roswell High School in Georgia, on Xavier McKinney
Ransby’s first interaction with McKinney was disciplinary. He had received an email from an English teacher who had a recruit acting in the classroom. Ransby told McKinney that if he wanted to play college someday, he had to do it. It was the only time they had ever talked about it.
But by the time Phillips started coaching, McKinney had made the university team in the second year. He had the raw talent to play, except that there was a senior in front of him getting more playing time in a safety rotation. Roswell was playing rival Milton at the start of the season when the situation hit a fork on the road.
“[He] sort of threw a bit in shape and pouted, “said Phillips.
McKinney felt he deserved to play. Phillips agreed, but wanted him to understand the game and told him to be ready when the time came. After avoiding Phillips for a short time, McKinney came back and told him that he would never give him another reason to think he didn’t deserve to be on the field.
“He still accepts the challenge,” said Phillips. “He took it up a notch.”
McKinney started his junior year holding offers from Alabama and Clemson, among others, and signed up for the first time in Alabama this fall. But he didn’t let him change his motivation. He helped Roswell reach the state championship – and then restarted his final year, although the Hornets lost in the finals both times.
In a team full of Division I recruits, McKinney separated from the others.
“He always had a slightly different level of focus than people his age,” said Ford.
McKinney focused primarily on security, but had some freedom to move around. Often, he took it upon himself to determine who was the opponent’s No. 1 weapon and “to erase[d] him, “said Ford. Other times he was in the box, and even when the coaches didn’t call him to blitz, he saw something and blitzed anyway, picking up the bag. When he stayed in his natural position and roamed the central field, he could also strike there.
Whatever he does, the way he moves always impresses his coaches.
“It looks like he is in perfect control of his body and is moving faster than people who exercise 110%,” said Ford. “There is fluidity and fluidity in the way he plays the game which is simply rare.”
“It just floated and slid,” said Phillips. “His body control is A-1 since day 1.”
Although he later resigned from Alabama, McKinney eventually ended up in Tuscaloosa – enrolling early after graduating from high school in December.
McKinney played primarily special teams as a freshman before making the leap to strong safety starting from Crimson Tide as a sophomore, replacing 2018’s first round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick. He immediately became an impact player, winning defensive MVP honors in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma before Alabama lost the national championship game.
As a junior, he moved to free safety, but his talent and football IQ allowed Nick Saban to move him as he pleased. He played 393 safety snaps, 166 at cornerback, 120 for linebacker and 113 for linebacker, according to ESPN.
After the games, he talked to Phillips and Ransby – who had grown from coaches to McKinney’s mentors and big brothers – about what they had seen. He didn’t want anyone to tell him how good he was, he wanted to know how he could still improve. During the off-season, he would return to Roswell and work with Ransby on rush-throwing exercises, a part of his game that he considered just as important as the footwork and the Cover-2.
“He’s a sponge,” said Ransby.
It’s part of what made McKinney – the latest in a solid tradition of dynamic security out of Alabama, including Fitzpatrick, Eddie Jackson, Landon Collins and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix – one of Saban’s favorites. .
“Because he is smart, because he works hard, because he is competitive,” said Ford. “You never have to worry about whether Xavier is going to participate.”
Even McKinney’s doodles are different. He turned them into tattoos, with his own drawings of cartoon characters like the Tasmanian devil, the Minions and Marvin the Martian now inked on his body.
But the first tattoo McKinney got, when he was a sophomore at Roswell, still serves as a daily reminder. On a bicep: Humble. On the other: Hungry.
“He understood it because he always wanted to remember where he should be, he never did enough and he pushes himself to the limit,” said Ransby.
If a pandemic is not an obstacle, McKinney will bring this mindset to the field with him this fall, and is expected to team up with Jabrill Peppers to form the Giants’ new safety duo. He has not yet had the benefit of practicing in the Giants system with his new teammates, but those who are close to McKinney have always seen him work to be mentally and physically ready for the challenges he would face. . They don’t expect it to be different.
“A kid who always had a huge talent, but more than that, he was a student of the game,” said Phillips, who sees potential Ed Reed type at McKinney.
“The fact that the love of the game and the way it approaches it, who knows what can happen. I wouldn’t even say that the sky is the limit – the sky is going to be the norm for him. What is there beyond that, who knows? “
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