Giants new safety Xavier McKinney will be honest with you: he thought he was going to go in the first round.
But the moment New York called his name off the board with the fourth pick in the second round, that all went away.
"Very surprised," McKinney said to the media when asked about falling out of the first round. "Of course I thought I was going to be drafted yesterday, but it is what it is. I'm happy to be a Giant and that's all that matters."
GM Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge are ecstatic, too, as they had that first-round grade for McKinney. He's a versatile safety who can play all over the field and impact the defense on all three levels.
"I like doing it all. I like playing as many positions as I can on the field," McKinney said. "I just like making plays for my teammates and helping my team be successful. So for me, that's pretty much my main goal. As far as what I can provide for the team, it really is whatever coach wants me to do."
Judge knows what his former college team of Alabama can produce on both sides of the ball, and he said as much when he called McKinney a "smart, tough, fundamentally-sound player." But McKinney actually had no clue Judge used to coach for the Crimson Tide. He does know that "a lot of things are going to be similar" in Judge and Nick Saban's coaching style, however.
Because of that first-round grade, though, the Giants did do their research on McKinney, who said he spoke with the team a lot toward the end of the draft process.
"I communicated with them a good bit, especially toward this ending part of it with us not having pro day and stuff like that," he said. "So, I've been in contact with them a few times and I always got a good vibe with them. It was people I felt comfortable with, it was coaches I felt comfortable with. Just knowing that everything was smooth when we talked, and they were more just trying to get to know me as a person instead of a player because they already knew what I could do on the field. They wanted to know what I could do off the field."
Video: Xavier McKinney is a highlight reel at safety
One of the main reasons McKinney might have fallen out of the first round is due to his poor 40-time at the Scouting Combine. He ran it at 4.63, but he said cramps held him back.
"The time that I ran at the combine, that was a fake time. I caught cramps before I actually ran. That was actually my worst time throughout the whole process. My best time was a 4.52 when I was training. If I got to do the pro day, I thought I was going to run a good time."
The Giants clearly didn't feel turned off by the 40-time, and McKinney even said he feels like he plays faster than the 40 says anyway. And that's backed by his stats last season: 95 tackles, three sacks, three interceptions, four fumbles and five passes defended.
Being that playmaker next to Jabrill Peppers is what the Giants see out of McKinney. It's also something he wants to do for his new team as well.
"I just try to make as many plays for my team as I can," McKinney said. "I like to put my teammates in the best position possible in whatever way that I can to help the team be successful in any part of the game. Whether that's special teams, whether that's playing on defense, wherever it is, I try to make sure I put my teammates in the best possible situation that we can be in. I do pride myself on being a playmaker."
