Post by EddieNYG on Jul 24, 2022 6:17:54 GMT -5
NY Post | Xavier McKinney acknowledges 'disagreements' with previous Giants regime by Steve Serby (7/23/22)
Third-year Giants safety Xavier McKinney tackles some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby before training camp opens this week.
Q: You were used to winning at Alabama. How difficult has it been to deal with losing?
A: It’s hard, I’ll tell you that, man. I know how to win. And I think that there was a lot of stuff that we were doing that wasn’t a winning mentality. And sometimes it was players, sometimes it was coaching. It was kind of a mixture of both. I hate losing. I refuse to accept that mentality, and I don’t accept it.
Q: What have you seen about the mentality from the players and the coaches in the offseason that gives you optimism about a winning mentality?
A: Everything starts off with how you practice, man. I come from a place where practice makes perfect. I’ve lived and died by that. And I think how we practice has been great. A lot of guys are really bought into what we’re doing. When you have people bought in, people are gonna want to play for you and people are gonna want to go all out for you. If they ain’t feeling too good that day, they’re gonna want to go because they’re bought in because they believe in you because you lived by what you said, and not just saying it just to say. I think that we’ve all experienced that so far with the coaches that we have. They’ve been very true to what they’ve said. They haven’t lied about anything. And they’ve taken care of us. So with that, practice has gone great, meetings have gone great. After every practice, just players, we’re meeting right after practice trying to figure out: “All right, where did we mess up today? What mental errors did we have today? What can we improve? What call is better in this area?” That type stuff goes a long way. We didn’t really have much of that these last two years, and that was a big problem. That came with obviously a lot of like everything didn’t look organized. Even defensively there were times we played good, but sometimes the communication wasn’t there, and that’s because everybody was kind of on different … it was a lot of different things going on. But now, it’s not like that, man. Everybody’s trying to be on one accord, everybody’s trying to go out there and make plays, they’re not worried about messing up, and they’re just trying to get better, man.
Q: Sum up the biggest difference in the way you practice from last year.
A: We are practicing a lot harder. … Everybody is locked in. Everybody is paying attention to details, the intensity is high all the time. … Everybody is tired of losing, I think that’s what it is. Everybody’s made it clear like we don’t want to lose. We don’t come here to lose games, we come here to win games. Credit to the coaches, too, because when they come in, what they did tell us was: “Make sure you run to the ball every play. No matter if you’re tired, no matter if you’re a D-lineman, no matter if you’re a linebacker, no matter if you’re a safety on the other side, no matter if you’re a corner. Make sure you run to the ball.” Once we got that message, everybody was all in with that, and everybody ran to the ball. It didn’t matter how tired we were, it didn’t matter what day it was, it didn’t matter if we had a bad day … it didn’t matter if we had a good day (laugh). That’s one of the biggest things on the defensive side that’s happened, all 11 swarming to the ball every single play.
Q: Are you all wearing down less, physically, in practices?
A: They’ve done a great job of taking care of us. Dabes [head coach Brian Daboll] has done a great job of communicating with us. There were some days where he would come talk to me and be like: “How’s the defense feeling? Guys tired?” … There’s some things where it was like, “We’re sore.” He would make sure that he chopped some stuff down that we weren’t putting so much on our bodies. That really sunk in with us because it told us that he actually cared about how we felt. Because some coaches, they’ll ask you like, “Are you good?” And then you say, “Nah, not really,” and then we’ll do the same thing. So all right, why did you ask me if you weren’t gonna change anything? So like with him, he’ll ask, and he’ll actually stand true to that. When you give everybody your word and you actually live by it, that means a whole lot more when you don’t. The organization of the practice, too, has been great just of making sure that everybody knows where to go, everybody’s not just running around and not knowing where to go. … Now, when I see these coaches and how they’re implementing things and how we’re actually doing and going about things, it’s a night and day difference.
Q: What have you learned about defensive coordinator Wink Martindale?
A: He’s had an open mind to everybody’s ideas. He’s an easy guy to talk to. What we love as a defense, we’re able to just go out there and be playmakers. We don’t have to worry about making a mistake on a third down or a fourth down or something like that. He just wants us to go out there and play, and I think that’s what we’ve missed obviously the past two years. Even though we were really good defensively, I think everybody could tell you on the defensive side everybody was so afraid of being the one to make the mistake instead of just actually going out there and playing.
Q: Can this be a top-10 defense?
A: I think so, man. We’re still making strides to get there, that’s what we want to be. But I think we’re gonna have a great defense.
Q: You hope to do more blitzing?
A: Yeah man, I do. I think in this system we’ll all able to play in different roles. I am definitely prepared and ready to get back to blitzing. I haven’t blitzed in two years, so (laugh), it’ll be fun. I was really good at it.
Q: What would you say the personality of this Giants defense will be?
A: I think we’ll be relentless. I think we’ll be risk-takers. We have a defense full of playmakers, we got a defense full of guys that can go out there and get the ball and go out there and make a play each and every play. When things aren’t going our way, I think we are able to bounce back.
Continue Reading...
Q: You were used to winning at Alabama. How difficult has it been to deal with losing?
A: It’s hard, I’ll tell you that, man. I know how to win. And I think that there was a lot of stuff that we were doing that wasn’t a winning mentality. And sometimes it was players, sometimes it was coaching. It was kind of a mixture of both. I hate losing. I refuse to accept that mentality, and I don’t accept it.
Q: What have you seen about the mentality from the players and the coaches in the offseason that gives you optimism about a winning mentality?
A: Everything starts off with how you practice, man. I come from a place where practice makes perfect. I’ve lived and died by that. And I think how we practice has been great. A lot of guys are really bought into what we’re doing. When you have people bought in, people are gonna want to play for you and people are gonna want to go all out for you. If they ain’t feeling too good that day, they’re gonna want to go because they’re bought in because they believe in you because you lived by what you said, and not just saying it just to say. I think that we’ve all experienced that so far with the coaches that we have. They’ve been very true to what they’ve said. They haven’t lied about anything. And they’ve taken care of us. So with that, practice has gone great, meetings have gone great. After every practice, just players, we’re meeting right after practice trying to figure out: “All right, where did we mess up today? What mental errors did we have today? What can we improve? What call is better in this area?” That type stuff goes a long way. We didn’t really have much of that these last two years, and that was a big problem. That came with obviously a lot of like everything didn’t look organized. Even defensively there were times we played good, but sometimes the communication wasn’t there, and that’s because everybody was kind of on different … it was a lot of different things going on. But now, it’s not like that, man. Everybody’s trying to be on one accord, everybody’s trying to go out there and make plays, they’re not worried about messing up, and they’re just trying to get better, man.
Q: Sum up the biggest difference in the way you practice from last year.
A: We are practicing a lot harder. … Everybody is locked in. Everybody is paying attention to details, the intensity is high all the time. … Everybody is tired of losing, I think that’s what it is. Everybody’s made it clear like we don’t want to lose. We don’t come here to lose games, we come here to win games. Credit to the coaches, too, because when they come in, what they did tell us was: “Make sure you run to the ball every play. No matter if you’re tired, no matter if you’re a D-lineman, no matter if you’re a linebacker, no matter if you’re a safety on the other side, no matter if you’re a corner. Make sure you run to the ball.” Once we got that message, everybody was all in with that, and everybody ran to the ball. It didn’t matter how tired we were, it didn’t matter what day it was, it didn’t matter if we had a bad day … it didn’t matter if we had a good day (laugh). That’s one of the biggest things on the defensive side that’s happened, all 11 swarming to the ball every single play.
Q: Are you all wearing down less, physically, in practices?
A: They’ve done a great job of taking care of us. Dabes [head coach Brian Daboll] has done a great job of communicating with us. There were some days where he would come talk to me and be like: “How’s the defense feeling? Guys tired?” … There’s some things where it was like, “We’re sore.” He would make sure that he chopped some stuff down that we weren’t putting so much on our bodies. That really sunk in with us because it told us that he actually cared about how we felt. Because some coaches, they’ll ask you like, “Are you good?” And then you say, “Nah, not really,” and then we’ll do the same thing. So all right, why did you ask me if you weren’t gonna change anything? So like with him, he’ll ask, and he’ll actually stand true to that. When you give everybody your word and you actually live by it, that means a whole lot more when you don’t. The organization of the practice, too, has been great just of making sure that everybody knows where to go, everybody’s not just running around and not knowing where to go. … Now, when I see these coaches and how they’re implementing things and how we’re actually doing and going about things, it’s a night and day difference.
Q: What have you learned about defensive coordinator Wink Martindale?
A: He’s had an open mind to everybody’s ideas. He’s an easy guy to talk to. What we love as a defense, we’re able to just go out there and be playmakers. We don’t have to worry about making a mistake on a third down or a fourth down or something like that. He just wants us to go out there and play, and I think that’s what we’ve missed obviously the past two years. Even though we were really good defensively, I think everybody could tell you on the defensive side everybody was so afraid of being the one to make the mistake instead of just actually going out there and playing.
Q: Can this be a top-10 defense?
A: I think so, man. We’re still making strides to get there, that’s what we want to be. But I think we’re gonna have a great defense.
Q: You hope to do more blitzing?
A: Yeah man, I do. I think in this system we’ll all able to play in different roles. I am definitely prepared and ready to get back to blitzing. I haven’t blitzed in two years, so (laugh), it’ll be fun. I was really good at it.
Q: What would you say the personality of this Giants defense will be?
A: I think we’ll be relentless. I think we’ll be risk-takers. We have a defense full of playmakers, we got a defense full of guys that can go out there and get the ball and go out there and make a play each and every play. When things aren’t going our way, I think we are able to bounce back.
Continue Reading...