Things have not gone well for the New York Giants over the past decade but under the watch of general manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge, they bottomed out. Literally.
The Giants hit low-water marks in both 2020 and 2021, including a franchise-worst 13 losses a season ago.
Understandably, that prompted yet another regime change. Gone are both Gettleman and Judge, and in are Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll. That’s been refreshing for the players, including safety Xavier McKinney.
Although McKinney publicly supported Judge and his staff at the time, he recently acknowledged “disagreements” with the previous regime. That includes defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.
“I think a lot of times we weren’t seeing eye to eye on certain things,” McKinney told the New York Post. “Last year, my first three or four games, I was barely playing. There were some games where I didn’t even play the whole first half. I think people forget that, too. It was a lot of different things, we had our disagreements time to time. I’m happy with our new staff, man, I’m happy with what they’re doing with us and how they’re communicating with us.”
Judge prided himself on his ability to communicate with players but since his departure, we’ve learned that wasn’t exactly his strong suit. And all of those “teachers” he hired? They struggled with communication as well.
In McKinney’s eyes, things have already changed drastically under Schoen, Daboll and the new staff.
“They’ve done a great job of taking care of us. Dabes has done a great job of communicating with us,” McKinney said. “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.”
As for the new-look Giants, McKinney is optimistic. And he shared that optimism in a message to Big Blue fans.
“I know it hasn’t been the best the last couple of years or so. But I think we’re really gonna change things around. Just be prepared, and we’re gonna make you guys proud. I appreciate you all for sticking with us, I know it’s been rough, but we’re gonna turn this thing around,” McKinney said.
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