Wink Martindale Shares Reaction to Xavier McKinney's Comments

The Giants' defensive coordinator admits to having been taken by surprise by McKinney's words.

New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale admitted he was both surprised and hurt by the comments made by safety and defensive co-captain Xavier McKinney to ESPN following the Giants' 30-6 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in which McKinney griped about leadership not being heard.

“I think that from a leadership standpoint, I don’t think they’ve done a great job of letting the leaders lead and listening to the leaders and the captains,” McKinney said. “It was one of those things where you have some of your leaders, captains from a defensive standpoint, trying to switch things up and just not really being heard.”

Martindale revealed that he was unaware of McKinney's sentiments during the game and that the comments caught him by surprise when he learned of them.

“It surprised me because it’s the first time in my career that a player would make a statement like that,” Martindale said. “I think it was a case where the kid was just frustrated with losing. We spoke. We cleared it up. The example that he gave me of what he was talking about was an in-game adjustment. It really took a while for him to point out exactly what it was to me."

The source of McKinney's frustration, according to Martindale, was a coverage that was called that the defense ran one time, one that McKinney apparently disagreed with. Yet, according to Martindale, McKinney didn't speak up about it during the game.

“He explained that to me afterward. I didn’t hear about it during the game," Martindale said. "That’s another reason why it caught me by surprise."

To ensure he hadn't given McKinney a reason to be upset, Martindale said he went to some of the veterans on the defense for their honest opinion.

“I had to go back and talk to the leaders,” he said. “And when I say leaders, you don’t have to have a ‘C’ on your chest to be a leader. I talked to the vets — A’Shawn (Robinson) and Nacho (Rakeen Nunez-Roches), Bobby (Okereke), all of them, and said, ‘Hey, is there something that we’re not discussing? Is there a problem here?’ And to a man, they said, ‘No.’ “

When McKinney and Martindale spoke to clear the air, Martindale had some blunt and brutally honest words for the fourth-year safety.

“I just told him that’s something that hurts the locker room; it hurts the defensive room when you say something like that," Martindale said. "I understand about clicks and all the things that [reporters] do, and I respect your profession. But the example I used in front of him and the entire defense is when you make a statement like that, it puts money in [the media’s] pockets and takes it out of ours."

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Martindale has drawn praise from his players regarding his communication style. He holds weekly "keep it real" sessions in which everyone is welcome to speak up without fear of repercussion.

“I end every meeting with, ‘Does anybody have anything, any questions, any concerns, are we OK, are your families OK? If you have something, say something. Do we like the plan?’ ’’ Martindale said.

“We’ve had discussions. We’ve had some different personalities that have been in those rooms. That’s a good thing (to discuss issues) before the game."

McKinney is in the final year of his rookie contract. There have been some signs from him that he's unhappy about not having received an extension from the team before the start of the season, as fellow teammates like Andrew Thomas and Dexter Lawerence, who were in the final years of their respective rookie deals, did.

Giants general manager Joe Schoen said before the start of the season that there were no plans to discuss a new contract with McKinney. Financially speaking, the Giants signing McKinney to a new deal before the start of the season would have only increased his cap hit rather than lowered it, which is likely why Schoen has tabled discussions for now.

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