All-NFC North Safeties: X Marks the Spot for McKinney

The Green Bay Packers’ big free-agent addition, Xavier McKinney, was selected the best safety in voting for the All-NFC North Team.

Bill Huber | Jul 21, 2024

Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers had arguably the worst safeties in the NFL last year. Now, with the addition of Xavier McKinney, they at least have the best safety in the NFC North.

McKinney was the runaway winner in safety voting for SI.com’s All-NFC North Team. All-NFC North voting was conducted by Bill Huber from Packers On SI, John Maakaron from Lions On SI, Gene Chamberlain from Bears On SI and Joe Nelson from Vikings On SI, who ranked their top four safeties, with one point for the best player, two points for the second-best player and so on.

McKinney received three of the four first-place votes and was the only player on all four ballots. The Detroit Lions’ Kerby Joseph received the other first-place vote, but the Minnesota Vikings’ venerable Harrison Smith wound up second in the voting. In all, seven safeties received at least a fourth-place vote.

Here are the all-NFC North safeties, with capsules written by their respective beat writers.

Xavier McKinney, Green Bay Packers

Last year, the Packers went into the playoffs with the duo of former first-round pick Darnell Savage and veteran Jonathan Owens as the starting safeties. Combined in the regular season, they had zero interceptions and four passes defensed. Not individually for the month of December. Combined. For the season.

GM Brian Gutekunst nuked that group. Gone are Savage, Owens and another veteran, Rudy Ford. In their place are McKinney and three draft picks. The big addition was McKinney, who signed a four-year, $67 million contract in free agency after a tremendous final season with the Giants of three interceptions, 11 passes defensed and 116 tackles.

When Jeff Hafley was hired as defensive coordinator, he was asked about what he looked for in a safety. He mentioned sideline-to-sideline range. The versatility to play deep and in the box. The skill to play man coverage. The desire to tackle. The ability to be the quarterback of the secondary.

“I’m describing the perfect player to you,” Hafley concluded.

McKinney might not be perfect, but he is a tremendous all-around talent who checks all those boxes. Still just 25, he’s an excellent playmaker in the passing game and one of the best tacklers in the business among safeties. According to PFF, he ranked fourth among safeties in passer rating allowed and sixth in missed-tackle percentage.

Without playing a single snap in Green Bay, he might be the team’s best safety since Nick Collins helped the team win the Super Bowl in 2010.

Harrison Smith, Minnesota Vikings

It’s amazing that Smith is still known as one of the best safeties in the league even though he’s played 12 years and was mulling retirement before deciding to return for his 13th season at 34 years old. How many guys who play hard-hitting positions that require speed and quickness can maintain a high level of play for a dozen-plus years?

Smith’s career should be considered at a level similar to the best safeties in NFL history, including Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, Brian Dawkins and Ronnie Lott. For context, Polamalu is a consensus top-five safety in NFL history and Smith has him beat in interceptions (34 to 32) and sacks (19.5 to 12), and he’s breathing down Polamalu’s neck in forced fumbles (12 to 14).

The numbers speak for themselves, but the thing Smith does that goes unheralded is lead and mentor the back end of a defense that quietly has two of the better young safeties in the league ––Josh Metellus and Cam Bynum–– who are ready to take on huge roles in 2024 and eventually fill Smith’s void when he decides to walk away from the game.

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Published Jul 21, 2024

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packer Central, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.