Safety Xavier McKinney certainly found a home in the Green Bay Packers‘ secondary in 2024.
Last season, his first with the Packers after signing as a free agent from the New York Giants, McKinney turned in the most impressive season of his career, taking home First-Team All-Pro honors for the first time.
McKinney, originally chosen by the Giants in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft, out of Alabama, produced 88 tackles with a career-high eight tackles and 11 pass breakups as a force on the back-end of the defense.
After bringing home a significant personal accolade last season, McKinney has sights set on loftier goals for the defense, as a whole, in 2025.
“That next step I think is to have one of the best defenses in the league,” McKinney said following an OTA practice last week. “That’s what we’re aiming for. We’re trying to be a defense that always creates turnovers, that plays with a level of intensity where the offense can’t match us, and I think we got the guys to do that. It’s going to be fun.”
McKinney is clearly an ideal fit for coordinator Jeff Hafley’s scheme, and a second season in the system could hold the key for the defense making major strides in 2025.
Hall of Famer Sees ‘Wolverine’ Potential in Green Bay Packers’ Xavier McKinney
Pro Football Hall of Famer and Packers legend LeRoy Butler was wildly impressed by McKinney’s first season in Green Bay, both on the field and as an infusion of leadership on defense.
“You know Wolverine,” Butler said of McKinney during an appearance on the Between The Hashmarks Podcast. “You shoot him up and he comes back to life? That’s how X is. The offense will get a long pass, and everybody’s down, he’ll get a pick, and everybody’s up and excited. Somebody will miss a tackle, Xavier will make the next tackle and it just lifts everybody.
“Somebody was saying that he is the defensive MVP, I got offended, he’s the MVP. Who’s to say in five games, that he won’t get an interception every game? They have to throw the ball … ”
The Packers are banking on McKinney’s best days being ahead of him, and if they are, Green Bay’s defense has the potential to take the league by storm.
