Xavier McKinney is the type of leader who would rather guide the Giants through the storm to a Lombardi Trophy than leave unfinished business.
The contract he earns this spring is important to him. So is his goal to parade through the Canyon of Heroes after bringing a fifth Super Bowl to Big Blue.
That came through clearly in McKinney’s exclusive interview with the Daily News Wednesday on the “Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard” podcast on the Bleav Network:
McKinney’s recent conversations with GM Joe Schoen have gone well. And in an ideal world, McKinney’s preference is to re-sign and see this through.
“I’ve always felt the love with the Giants,” McKinney, 24, said Wednesday in his first extensive comments since the season ended. “They were the team that drafted me, so I’ve been in love with them ever since. I’m one of them guys, I like staying on the same team in my career. When I went to [Ala]bama, I never thought about transferring. I’m loyal to the soil.”
“Regardless of if it’s going good or bad, I always want to be the person to stand 10 toes down throughout the storm,” he continued. “I like to fight through adversity and try to be the person or the solution to help, to figure it out, to turn things around. I never try to quit or give up or run away, because that’s just not how I’m built.”
The money will need to properly validate McKinney’s play as a top-five NFL safety, obviously. He finished 2023 as Pro Football Focus’ No. 1 safety in both coverage and tackling (No. 3 in tackling behind two part-timers who didn’t truly qualify) and PFF’s No. 4 safety overall.
The top five safeties in the league currently average between $16-19 million per season, with guarantees that span from $36-42 million in total.
But Schoen stressed on Tuesday that the Giants want to bring their free safety back and have more cap space than anticipated, due to the NFL’s soaring revenues, heading into Friday’s negotiation with agent David Mulugheta.
“I think my play and my leadership, that kind of speaks for itself,” McKinney said. “I do believe I should be paid as a top-five guy because I am that, I believe in that and the numbers speak for that. But also there are other factors that play a role into ultimately what I want to do.”
“It’s kind of like a mix of both at the end of the day,” he added. “I do really love the idea of playing and being with the same team for my entire career. That’s something that I’ve always kind of stuck with growing up at any level… But I think both things kind of speak for [themselves] as far as how I want to be paid and how I want to be respected as a leader.”
Being the leader of the Giants matters to McKinney, especially.
He said it meant a lot to him that “when I went through my ups and my downs when I had my hand injury [in 2022], they were there for me,” from co-owner John Mara to Schoen to head coach Brian Daboll.
He said his recent social media about wanting to be “appreciated” came with “no ill intent” and wasn’t about football.
“That’s just life in general, what my motto is and what I go by,” he said. “It wasn’t anything necessarily toward any person or any team or whatever it is.”
And although McKinney said he has tried to unplug from football recently, it stood out that when he was asked about potential outside suitors like the Green Bay Packers, he said: “Honestly, I haven’t really thought about playing for any other team.”
“I’m just trying to take this time to relax my body, relax my mind,” he said. “Obviously in a couple weeks, I’m gonna have to think about some stuff, even before free agency starts. But I haven’t thought about any team really.”
Given McKinney’s conviction on his value, it’s understandable that he had no interest in even considering the suggestion of a transition tag as a tool the Giants might use to retain him or match any outside free agent offers.
“I’m not the one for tags,” McKinney said. “I don’t really get into it because, mentally, I believe in my worth and have been able to be a highly productive player, to put up really good numbers, to show that I am a top safety in this league. And I’ve been able to show that I am worth every penny of whatever I’ll get paid.”
“But I’m not really into the whole tags, franchise tags, transition,” he added. “I don’t really know much about the transition tag anyways. But I don’t even wanna speak on it much, because I’m not even gonna put my energy [into] or entertain those things.”
That’s just another example of McKinney standing his ground, though, which is what he hopes to do here with the Giants when the numbers line up.
