As expected, Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney’s playmaking doesn’t happen naturally. Like many great safeties, when McKinney isn’t reading the quarterback’s eyes or coming downhill to make a tackle, he’s in a constant state of preparation.
Unfortunately, we on the outside aren’t privy to how McKinney carries himself off the field. Fortunately, on Thursday, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley shed some light on what Green Bay’s new safety is like behind closed doors.
“Really competitive,” Hafley said. “Last night, I get a text from him at probably 6:30, ‘Hey, are you done with the third down plan yet, and can you send it to me?’ You send it to him and this morning, he comes in before anybody else, and he wants to sit down and meet, and he wants me to go over with him.”
But being the leader and perfectionist that he is, McKinney doesn’t stop there.
“Then he goes over it with our defense and the defensive backs and does in the walk-through and does it on the field because he wants to get it right right away, and he gets angry when he doesn’t. Because that’s what the great ones do, and he holds himself to such a high standard where he doesn’t want to make mistakes, and it shows.”
In January, when Hafley was hired to overhaul Green Bay’s defense, he described his ideal safety—a player who sounded a lot like McKinney, whom the Packers signed just two months later.
“I want a guy who can erase things,” said Hafley. “We gotta eliminate explosive plays when we play this defense, so if a run hits up the middle, this guy’s gotta come out of the middle field with his hair on fire. He’s gotta be able to get a guy down. I also want him to be a guy when a ball carrier is wrapped up, he goes, and he finishes off the pile…I want a guy who can go from sideline to sideline and take the ball away. I think that position has to be a guy with high ball production, meaning he’s gotta be able to intercept the ball. He’s gotta be a guy that can communicate, and he’s gotta be a guy that can get guys lined up and make some calls back there, and I’d love a guy that can play man. So I guess I’m describing the perfect player to you, but those are some of the traits I’d look for in playing that position.”
While no player is perfect, McKinney has come pretty close through the first nine games of the season. He’s completely revitalized a safety room that was arguably the worst in the league a year ago. McKinney started off the season with an interception in five straight games, becoming the first NFL player since the 1970 merger to have an interception in his first five games with a team.
When the Packers made McKinney the fourth-highest-paid safety in the NFL by annual salary, they hoped they were getting a consistent player who could potentially make the Pro Bowl. So far, it is safe to say they have gotten their money’s worth and more.
McKinney is not only on track for his first Pro Bowl nod in 2024 but is also likely to be an All-Pro. The last Green Bay safety to be named to an All-Pro team was Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in 2016.
The numbers certainly make a good case for McKinney. Despite having only one interception in his last four games, he is still tied for the league lead with six.
However, statistics and accolades don’t mean much in Green Bay if they don’t include a Super Bowl. That mindset has rubbed off on McKinney, who has already moved past being named the NFL Defensive Player of the Month for October.
“Obviously, that’s not the end goal,” said McKinney.
With the second half of the season still ahead, while McKinney may not be a perfect safety, he has been a perfect fit with the Packers.