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- Mar 19, 2019
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Alabama head coach Nick Saban has a high opinion of the Giants’ decision to hire his former assistant Joe Judge as their new head coach and also has a high opinion of their decision to take former Alabama safety Xavier McKinney in the second round.
Saban believes McKinney “has a lot of diversity as a player” when it comes to his ability to play the run, defend the pass and rush the passer.
“I think the guy’s got some dog in him,” Saban said, via the Giants website. “He’s a competitive guy. He’s a playmaker. We have a production point system here that we use, and he was always high on that board because he forces fumbles, shows up in the right place, does a good job of executing. He’s instinctive, he’s a quick reactor, he’s got a burst. He can be a knock-back tackler. So he’s always been a real playmaker for us and it comes in a lot of different ways, but that’s probably his greatest strength — his production.”
That should help him at the pro level and Saban believes it will be an “easy transition” overall based on the kind of system McKinney learned to play with the Crimson Tide. Watching defensive backs like Minkah Fitzpatrick, Eddie Jackson, Marlon Humphrey and Landon Collins in recent years offers some support for the prediction that McKinney will hit the ground running with the Giants.