Why Is Everyone Overlooking Xavier McKinney?

All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney's calf injury, which will keep him out of camp, is getting lost in the mix of injuries that continue to mount for the Green Bay Packers. 

During the year-plus that Xavier McKinney has been in Green Bay, a persistent narrative has been circulating that people outside Wisconsin continue to overlook him. 

I don’t want to say he doesn’t get the respect he deserves. He was a first-team All-Pro, eighth in DPOY voting, he’s a 93 on Madden, the second-highest rated safety, and he had the second-highest coverage PFF grade among safeties.

McKinney has also not been named to the NFL Top 100 list to this point, which is now in the top 34. That means he’s going to be somewhere between 1-34, ahead of players like Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb, unless they left off a first-team All-Pro. 

Despite all this, he really doesn’t seem to receive the recognition he deserves. He’s not discussed like a player of that caliber, and is often overlooked when he should be recognized as one of the league’s best and most impactful players.

The Giants Incompetence

One of the leading storylines throughout the season was the New York Giants' decision to allow Saquon Barkley to enter free agency, followed by his signing with the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles. We all know how that played out. However, people rarely mention that the Giants also let McKinney walk.

Five weeks into the season, McKinney was leading the league in interceptions with five, one in each of the first five games of Green Bay’s season. The Packers were winning games without Jordan Love, and the defense was rising as one of the best units in the NFL; MicKinney was a significant reason for that. He had come in and completely changed a defense that had been underwhelming for over a decade, and that continued throughout the season.

Still, the conversation is always, I can’t believe the Giants let Saquon Barkley walk.

I get it, Saquon scores you fantasy points, and he has the Hard Knocks clip. He jumped over a defender, backwards. He went to a division rival, he won the OPOY, and the Super Bowl. Saquon is a fantastic player. He deserves all of the recognition that he’s gotten. Still, he entered a good situation and made it even better. McKinney came into a bad situation and made it good, and he deserves more kudos than he’s gotten for that.

The Most Essential Non-QB

Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson on the Check the Mic podcast sparked another conversation that overlooked McKinney. 

They listed who they thought were the most essential non-quarterbacks on each team. Palazzolo and Monson listed wide receivers for Green Bay, both of which were puzzling to Packers fans. 

Monson started by listing Matthew Golden, which is baffling because we’ve never seen Golden play in the NFL, and we’ve already seen Green Bay’s offense perform well without him. He framed it as it being essential that Golden good for this offense to take the next step, but that doesn’t mean he’s more essential than other candidates.

Then, Palazzolo listed Christian Watson, which came with much pushback in the replies. Watson's ability to take the top off the defense is indeed essential for this offense to function at its peak level. However, Watson is nowhere near the level of player to be considered for the most essential non-QB. Watson has also dealt with multiple injuries. Like with Golden, we’ve seen this offense function at a high level without him.

Some of the more deserving candidates include Josh Jacobs, Tucker Kraft, Edgerrin Cooper, Rashan Gary, Zach Tom, Elgton Jenkins, and McKinney. Running backs are more fungible than any position group in the NFL. Edgerrin Cooper is awesome, but he played less than 50% of snaps last season, and the defense was good before he became a full-time player. 

I’d be very worried about the pass rush if Rashan Gary got injured. Still, his play declined last season. Tucker Kraft is amazing, and I believe he should play a more significant role in the offense, but the offense doesn’t utilize him in a way that makes him extremely essential.

Therefore, it came down to Zach Tom, Elgton Jenkins, and Xavier McKinney. We’ve seen what can happen to the O-line in the last two playoffs when Tom left the San Francisco 49ers game injured in 2024 and when Jenkins left the Philadelphia Eagles game this past season. 

The offense never gained traction and cost them both games. However, they got Jordan Morgan healthy and added Anthony Belton with a second-round pick, and both guys have looked playable up to this point in camp. That makes this line at least seven guys deep, which wasn’t the case in the past.

Ultimately, that means McKinney is their most valuable non-quarterback.

Green Bay’s defense can’t function the way it wants to without McKinney. I don’t want to take too much away from one drive of a preseason game. Still, we got our first taste of that when the New York Jets marched down the field on their first possession against a McKinney-less Packers starting defense.

The Safety Position Has No Stars

Last week, people started talking about how safeties aren’t stars in the NFL again.

It was a ridiculous thing to say, but somehow that post got 20k likes. Some of my favorite players to watch on an NFL field are Kyle Hamilton, Xavier McKinney, Budda Baker, and, I hate to say it, but Brian Branch. These are some of the more versatile and exciting players in the league. They play all over the field and impact the game in numerous ways. 

As Hafley said, people stopped throwing anywhere near McKinney last season. He’s creating his own version of Revis Island as a backend safety. If you throw near him, there’s a good chance he’s making a play on the ball. 

It could simply be a positional thing. People label safeties as a position that doesn’t matter as much as others. However, when you have a player like Xavier McKinney or Kyle Hamilton, players who change the math on defense, they are more than that. These players are stars, and they should be recognized and talked about as such.