GREEN BAY, Wis. -- On the day he was introduced as the newest addition to the Green Bay Packers' defense, Xavier McKinney was told of new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley's description of the "perfect" safety for his scheme.
Back on March 15, standing in the middle of the team's locker room at Lambeau Field, McKinney shot down any notion of perfection.
"I don't think any player's perfect," McKinney said at the time. "But I will tell you that I'm striving for that."
McKinney has come closer to that than anyone thought was humanly possible.
Five games with the Packers, five interceptions. One in each game. If he snags another one Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, he will be just the fourth player since 1970 with an interception in each of his team's first six games of a season, according to ESPN Research.
Dating to the end of last season, McKinney has gone six straight games with an interception. He picked off a pass in his final game of 2023, his last with the New York Giants, who must be kicking themselves for letting McKinney get away.
It took a four-year, $67 million contract that included a $23 million signing bonus to get McKinney to Green Bay, and he might already be in the conversation for best free agent signing in team history.
Reggie White, Charles Woodson, Julius Peppers and -- maybe, just maybe -- McKinney.
While no one will likely ever compare to White, whose signing in the early days of free agency (1993) changed the national perception of Green Bay and set the Packers on a course toward the Super Bowl that they won in the 1996 season, the Packers haven't made as many big splashes in free agency in recent history.
Former general manager Ted Thompson was notoriously averse to spending big money on free agents. From 2010 to 2016, he signed only two unrestricted free agents -- both during the 2012 offseason. Still, he found massive success with Woodson in 2006. Peppers, who was signed in 2014, wasn't technically an unrestricted free agent because he had been cut by the Bears shortly before free agency opened.
A vice president of player personnel in the league this week called Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst's signing of McKinney a "great value," which is saying something, considering he's the fourth-highest paid safety in the league based on his $16.75 million average per year.
Part of McKinney's success is no doubt because of Hafley's willingness to play him in the deep safety spot most of the time. If not for the emergence of rookie safety Javon Bullard and Evan Williams, Hafley might not have been able to give McKinney that much freedom. Against the Rams, Williams played the other safety spot while Bullard lined up as the nickel/slot defensive back.
McKinney doesn't take that freedom for granted. Defensive backs coach Ryan Downard said that soon after each game he will get a text message from McKinney wondering when the film of the next opposing quarterback will be uploaded to his iPad.
"You can teach that to guys, and we have to be able to teach that to guys, but some guys are just more natural at it than others," Downard said of McKinney's ability to dissect the film. "And the other thing with him, you take his anticipation and then you take his body mechanics, like the things you see in individual drills, the way his weight is forward, so he's always ready to come out of his break. That, combined with the instincts and anticipation, that's what makes him a special player in the deep part of the field."
All five of McKinney's picks have come with him playing the deep safety spot. He admittedly should've had a sixth when a second pick against the Rams went through his hands late in the third quarter. Still, McKinney was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week and has put himself in the early conversation for Defensive Player of the Year, an award Woodson won in 2009 and was last won by a safety in 2010 (Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu).
McKinney has already matched his single-season high in interceptions from 2021.
X gon' take it from ya.#MINvsGB pic.twitter.com/iuUdeNQkS8
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) September 29, 2024
"We all knew he was a good player, but I think the way he's going out there and playing and getting these takeaways every game, I think no one could see it coming," Packers quarterback Jordan Love said. "You can't predict these things. What happens in the game, there's so many different factors. Just being in the right spot at the right time and going up and making plays. It's something that you can't predict."
McKinney has made an impact off the field too. He has helped change the culture in the secondary.
Cornerback Eric Stokes, who has been with the Packers since 2021, said the defensive group is closer than at any time during his career. Either McKinney or cornerback Keisean Nixon host the entire position group for a get-together every Thursday.
"We [used] to do it here and there," Stokes said. "But now it's consistent, like every week we've been doing it, and I feel like it brought us closer.
"We watch 'Thursday Night Football' and order some food, sit around and talk, vibe and just hang out with each other."
Stokes said it's always carry-out food.
"I do not trust nobody's cooking right now," Stokes said.
Instead, they let McKinney do the cooking on the field.