Safety Xavier McKinney is in his second season in Green Bay
What’s the key to a road win?
Energy. Just making sure that our energy is through the roof. I think we’re going to have really good energy, because we’re going to have our fans. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot at the game. I think within the locker room, everyone’s got to have high energy and be ready to go.
What about the takeaways?
I think people are being a little bit more careful, so we don’t get as many opps as we did last year, but I also think that on the opps that we do, we’ve got to capitalize. Y’all seeing what we’re seeing. It’s a lot of checkdowns the majority of the time, so we’ve got to try to keep finding ways to punch at the ball and when they do throw the ball deep. We’ve got to capitalize on those opportunities.
Is 20 points per game enough?
Hey, man, that’s the system that we’ve got to play. Right now, it’s working. Hopefully we can keep that thing going like how it is, but I think eventually we’ll start getting some of those turnovers and the ball will start rolling our way. That’s how we’re playing, and we’re forcing teams to check it down. We’ve just got to keep playing within our scheme and make them plays when we get the opportunity.
Is anybody held more than Micah Parson?
No. I ain’t seen a guy get chipped as much, either. I don’t know what the stats are on that but since we’ve gotten him, that’s all we’ve been getting is a whole bunch of chippers, just trying to get our edge rushers to slow down a little bit and give them a little bit more time. Yeah, I haven’t seen as much.
Who helps you bring the energy?
Player led. Player led. Player led. It’s player led. The coaches can’t give us any energy.
Obviously, they can do so much, but it has to be something that’s player, led because we’re the ones that are out there playing the game in between the lines. It has to be player led, and we’ve all got to do a better job – me, myself included. We’ve got to do a better job of getting that energy up to here coming out of halftime.
How about the ball not coming to you?
It’s a little tough, especially like you said, we know what we’re doing, and we kind of know what they’re going to do against that. So, it can be tough a little bit to get energy going when you know it’s going to be checkdown, checkdown, checkdown, run. But, at the same time, we’ve got to control what we can control, which is going out there regardless of it’s a checkdown or they throw it deep, whatever can get that energy going, whether it’s a hit, whether it’s a pick, whatever it is, we’ve got to find it and get that going.
Meeting with Hafley?
I’m meeting with Haf I’d probably say at least twice a week, and we he ask me about what I like here, where I want to be at. He gives me the freedom to pick and choose where I’m at. But we always have open dialogue conversations to where it’s like, OK, let’s figure out where we could be placed, or we could put you, or you could put yourself to where you have the opportunity to make a play.
How are you doing right now?
I’m good, man. I’m in good spirits. I always see it as everything is always going to happen exactly how it’s supposed to. So I’m never going to press or anything like that. I know it’ll end up falling my way. But the biggest thing for me I can’t come here with being in my feelings, or feeling a type of way because at the same time, like yeah, I want all this stuff to happen, but I still I gotta lead these guys too. My energy always gotta be high. I always gotta make sure mood-wise I’m always into it regardless of if I’m making plays or if I’m not making plays. I still got other responsibilities that I have to make sure that I take care of.
Does moving around matter? Won’t a quarterback see where you are and avoid you or take you away?
I mean they can, I think if you were to put me by whoever their go-to is, or whatever, like, they going to think that they go-to – they going to trust they’re go-to, you know what I’m saying? I think in that aspect, if you think of it that way, it don’t really matter. They not gonna just go away because I’m there. No, they’re going to believe that they’re guy is the guy. I think there’s different ways where we can incorporate just moving different things around, but we’ll get to it as we keep moving on the season.
Where is most impactful place for you?
Well, that’s a very — like I can’t just answer that question, because it depends on the situation. It depends on down and distance. That’s why when I mention all of this stuff really depends on what’s the D-and-D, what’s the situation, where are they at on the field? So it depends like, on some spots on the field it might be better for me to be in the backfield. Some parts of the field it may be better for me to be up. But we just still trying to kind of figure that out and see where’s best fit possible depending on where we are on the field.
