With Giants' secondary in flux, Xavier McKinney remains constant

Everything has changed.

Nothing has changed.

Welcome to the Xavier McKinney Paradox, wherein the Giants’ secondary is in the process of an overhaul that will leave him as one of the more established and longest-tenured players in the group, yet the third-year safety insists it’s a leadership onus he has carried with him since he arrived in the NFL.

Can both be true at the same time?

The Giants are counting on it.

The players who used to be the voices and playmakers and spirit animals of the defensive backfield are either gone or in the process of being separated from the roster. Logan Ryan, a captain last season and the driving force of the team since he first stepped on the practice field for them in August 2020, was released and has since signed with the Buccaneers. Jabrill Peppers, a two-year captain who was an integral piece of the 2019 Odell Beckham Jr. trade with the Browns that shaped just about every decision the franchise has made in the years since, was not re-signed as a free agent after missing the second half of 2021 with a torn ACL. He’s since joined the Patriots. And James Bradberry, the Pro Bowl cornerback who arrived as a free agent two years ago? The contract that brought him to New York has already become too heavy a burden for the cap-strapped team to carry any further. He’s likely to be traded or released by the time the dust has settled from the draft at the end of this month.

This is the landscape McKinney entered when he and a good number of his teammates arrived in New Jersey for the start of the voluntary offseason program this week.

And yet . . .

"From Day One I've been a leader, so nothing changes," McKinney said. "It doesn't matter who's here, it doesn't matter who's gone, I've been the same. I'll just continue to improve and get better. I pride myself on consistency and being able to improve myself, my game, and how I lead each and every day. That's the steps that I'm going to take forward with it.”

None of which is to say that the departed (and soon-to-be such) former pillars of the pass defense have been totally erased. Asked about the loss of Ryan, who had been a strong mentor for him, McKinney said: “That’s my guy. We had conversations [after he was released].” On the subject of Bradberry, who has not been at the voluntary events as he awaits his future elsewhere, McKinney said: “I told him I was going to continue to just talk with him and try to get some knowledge from him just because he's been in the league for so long, longer than I have, playing-wise and just in general in life.”

Such is the NFL, as McKinney is learning. Faces come and go from one year to the next, and not just in the locker room.

“I've actually seen a lot of different things throughout my two years,” he said of the turnover since he was selected with ta second-round pick in 2020. “I was actually talking to [Bradberry] a few days ago and I told him these two years, it’s felt like I've been in the league for six years just with all the COVID stuff and the staff movements and things going around in the organization.”

McKinney, though, insists he has not budged from who he is. Nor does he expect to as he enters a season in which he’ll be counted upon to not only boost his level of play but step into those vacant leadership shoes.

“Like I said, I've been a leader for a very long time, so this is nothing new to me,” he said. “I don't see it as something that's bigger than what it was before because it's just who I am. There's no added pressure or anything like that. It's who I am and it's what I do.”

Privately, the new Giants regime is very excited to work with McKinney. While there are many pieces of the team they inherited which they are eager to dump, alter, and retool, McKinney stands out as one of the few they see as a foundational piece to their long-term plans. He is one of the reasons why Ryan was expendable, why Peppers wasn’t retained. While his level of experience may not be what theirs was — he missed 10 games as a rookie because of a foot injury — he has the potential to be better on the field. In 2021, essentially his first full season in the NFL, McKinney was the only defensive back in the league with at least 90 tackles (93), 10 passes defensed (10) and five interceptions (5).

“I think I've done a lot of good things,” McKinney said of his short but impactful career. “I think I've figured out a lot of things. Obviously, I still have a lot of improvement to continue to grow. But as far as laying a foundation, I think I've done that. I think I've learned a lot. I've seen a lot of different things throughout these two years that I've been here. Now I think it's time to kind of step it up a notch and go a little bit further with it and just keep building on from what I've already built.”

That began this week when McKinney arrived at the facility not as a young up-and-comer but as a potential captain.

Still, there is a learning curve for him. Even after two years with the team, Monday was McKinney’s first day in the Giants’ facility without the COVID protocols that had upended the building and the uses of its amenities throughout the entirety of his career. For most of the last two years the field house had been commandeered and partitioned to accommodate meetings. The tables in the cafeteria have been spaced apart and food served in sterile to-go containers. The hallways were a series of one-way roads to control traffic flows.

“I haven't gotten to see a lot of stuff,” McKinney said of his unexplored home for the last two years. “Like, I didn't even know where the position rooms were. So that was new for me. But I like being back how it should have been. Being back to normal."

Everything has changed.

Nothing has changed.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.