McKinney making plays in camp

Moving from college football to the NFL always presents challenges, but Xavier McKinney is experiencing as close to a smooth transition as a player can get.

The rookie safety said Thursday that although the speed and tempo of Giants practices are faster, the way head coach Joe Judge operates strikingly resembles Nike Saban at Alabama.

Judge was a special teams assistant under Saban from 2009-11. The Crimson Tide have had 365 players selected in the draft since its inception in 1936.

“It’s very similar,” McKinney said. “When he kind of discussed some of his rules and how he wanted things to be handled and how he wanted us to be as a team, it was almost like a mirror version of how it was at ‘Bama for me. So as far as that, it was an easy adjustment for me just because I’ve already been in this type of system.”

McKinney, the Giants’ second-round draft pick, has been running with the first-team defense at free safety next to strong safety Jabrill Peppers so far in training camp. That’s no surprise, as McKinney was lauded by many analysts the best safety in the draft because of his instincts, intelligence and versatility.

Those traits have been on display during the Giants’ first week of padded practices. McKinney had an interception Tuesday night while creeping up to the line of scrimmage and telegraphing a pass in the flat.

“I was just on a blitz. I got a couple progressions to read through before I actually finished out my whole blitz,” McKinney said. “Once I go through all those progressions, that’s when I can kind of attack. I felt the quarterback looking my way, looking for something behind me and I felt something behind me. It was almost just like a reaction play. I used my instincts and tried to make a play for us there on the goal line.”

McKinney added that he almost had “a couple” more interceptions Thursday, and he’s not a player who is content with simply breaking up a pass.

“Never satisfied,” McKinney said. “That’s my biggest thing right now. For me, I know what I can do. I know what I’m capable of, so a lot of the times I go back and watch my film and when we watch film as a team, I always study and see what I did wrong and what I could do better so I can improve on the play.”

The Giants will learn even more about exactly how McKinney flows within the overall scheme of the defense during their first intrasquad scrimmage Friday morning.

“You hope that he just continues to grow,” defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson said last week. “We’re going to really push him hard to make sure that he continues to grow and become one of those communicators for us on the backend. The safety position is the one that kind of sits back and sees it all and talks down to what’s beneath them. We’re certainly going to ask that of him.”

Gano Feeling Healthy

Graham Gano, whom the Giants signed Wednesday to be their kicker, said he feels 100 percent healthy after undergoing surgery on his plant leg from Riley Williams at HHS in New York City.

“I feel like my leg is better than it’s ever been,” Gano said. “I feel strong. I’m just going to keep getting better and better.”

Gano is entering his 12th season as an NFL kicker but hasn’t appeared in a game since Dec. 2, 2018 because of his previously nagging knee injury.

“That’s part of the game,” Gano said. “Sometimes things happen that are out of your control, and really you can only control what you can. My mindset was just, ‘I’m going to keep getting better at what I can do and just move forward.’”

First Intrasquad Scrimmage

Because there are no preseason games this year, the Giants are holding an intrasquad scrimmage every Friday until the regular season starts.

Judge intends to give the players situational repetitions for early downs, third downs, red zone and short yardage. Then practice will flow with a normal game setting in which offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will call plays.

“(Friday) is definitely going to be a lot more of just aware on the field, see the sticks, what’s the down and distance … let’s just go ahead and play it out and see how smart our players can react, see how physical they can play and see how we can hold up our fundamentals and execution through a higher intensity,” Judge said.