Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney is making history with his hot spot. “It’s not luck,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said.
Xavier McKinney has started his Green Bay Packers career with an interception in three consecutive games.
“I have never had a pick in three straight games,” McKinney said on Wednesday. “Well, in high school I probably did, but college on through NFL, this is my first time it’s ever happened.”
To fix the worst position group on last year’s team, the Packers opened the vault to sign McKinney. The four-year, $67 million contract made him the fourth-highest-paid safety in the NFL by annual salary, with his $16.75 million trailing only the Buccaneers’ Antoine Winfield ($21.025 million), the Chargers’ Derwin James ($19.0 million) and the Steelers’ Minkah Fitzpatrick ($18.247 million).
With great money comes great expectations. McKinney has exceeded all expectations. With as many interceptions in 186 snaps as all of Green Bay’s safeties grabbed in 2,280 snaps last year, McKinney has helped the Packers match their season-long total of seven interceptions in just three games.
“I never try to put expectations on a player, no matter how much we pay him or when we pick him,” defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said on Thursday. “I think he’s had a really, really good three games, and I don’t think it’s by chance. He’s very, very talented – like, extremely talented – and then he works really hard at it.
“He’s constantly texting me questions. We’re going back and forth, even when we’re not here in the building. He’s in my office early in the morning wanting to go over the game plan before we even give out the game plan. He’s watching extra tape, he’s studying it, that’s what you get when you’re that talented and you work that hard. You get on the field, it’s not luck. His preparation has met his opportunity and he’s taken off with it.”
Against the Titans, McKinney became the first player to record an interception in each of his first three games with his new team since cornerback Cortland Finnegan signed with the St. Louis Rams in 2012.
If he picks off the Vikings’ Sam Darnold on Sunday at Lambeau Field, McKinney would become the fourth player since 2000 with an interception in each of his team’s first four games, joining the Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs in 2021, the Patriots’ Devin McCourty in 2019 and the Vikings’ Brian Russell in 2003.
“I expected to do this,” he said after the blowout win at Tennessee. “I know where I want to get and what I want to do and what I want to accomplish, and I’m going to just keep working hard and keep preparing the right way every week, and I’m going to keep trying to create these opportunities for myself and for this team to go out there and be successful.
“But I expect to do this, and I’m just keep working and keep grinding and, hopefully, we can keep this thing rolling.”
McKinney has a playmaking background. A second-round pick by the Giants in 2020, McKinney was healthy for two seasons. In 2021, he intercepted five passes. In 2023, he intercepted three. He had five interceptions during his final two seasons at Alabama.
While intercepting passes is nothing new to McKinney, it is for a Packers safety.
In 2019, the Packers gave a big contract to Adrian Amos in free agency. In four seasons with the team, he intercepted seven passes but never more than two. The Packers paired Amos with Darnell Savage, a first-round pick in 2019. Savage had four interceptions in 2020 and eight during his first three years but just one in 2022 and zero in 2023.
McKinney is just the third player in Packers history with an interception in each of his first three games, joining linebacker John Anderson, who had five picks as a rookie first-round pick in 1978, and defensive back Doyle Nix, who had five picks as a rookie 18th-round pick in 1955.
“Xavier’s a guy that had a lot of talent and he made a lot of big plays in New York. See(ing) a guy like that walk, it’s an excitement,” defensive end Preston Smith said. “It’s excitement for us and it’s a big thing for us.
“We (were) happy to see it happen to get a player like that and he’s been making an impact since he got there. And now the season rolls around and it’s here, he’s been making an impact each game. He has a lot of abilities. He’s a rangy safety that can cover the field and make sure that anything over the top is going to be hard to get those passes back there.”
McKinney leads the NFL with three interceptions, with teammate Jaire Alexander one of seven players with two. No Packers player has led the NFL in interceptions since Charles Woodson in 2009 and 2011. The only Packers safeties to lead the NFL are Darren Sharper with nine in 2000 and Hall of Famer Willie Wood with nine in 1062.
Has McKinney had to adjust his goals due to his red-hot start?
His answer shows why he was such a priority for the Packers to sign in free agency.
“I have individual goals but a lot of times I try to keep them to myself,” he said. “Really, my main focus is on this team. I want to be able to win games.
“In order to do that, I know I have to put my best foot forward. Each week, trying to just prepare the right way, trying to make sure that my best foot is forward every week and trying to always put these guys in this locker room ahead of me. Those are my biggest things and whatever comes after that, that’s what’s going to happen. Just trying to do what I can do for this team.”