Xavier McKinney reveals the major difference between Brian Daboll and Joe Judge
Brian Daboll has only been with the NY Giants for a little over a year, but there’s no question that the man has already become a bit of a legend in the area. Hey, people are going to love you when you take the 4-13 G-Men and then completely turn things around during your first season in charge of the team.
The postseason berth was amazing to see and the future is bright for Big Blue with Daboll in town. Just ask star safety Xavier McKinney about that. In a recent interview, McKinney opened up about Daboll and gave insights on the biggest difference between him and the previous staff led by Joe Judge: Coach Dabes is actually listening to the playmakers suiting up for him.
NY Giants safety Xavier McKinney believes Brian Daboll should be Coach of the Year
That’s a powerful clip from McKinney’s interview with the Pivot Podcast. Straight up, the defensive back said that Judge and his staff never had players looking forward to offseason workouts or things that weren’t mandatory. The player-coach relationship seems like it never existed for the Giants while Judge was with the squad.
That’s not the case with Daboll running the show, as you can tell that every guy inside of the locker room has a tremendous amount of respect for him, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and the other staff members.
McKinney had an up and down season for the Giants, highlighted by his unfortunate ATV accident in Mexico which not only cost him most of the season, but it almost led to him losing several fingers. Luckily, McKinney was able to close out the year with the G-Men, helping the team reach the postseason for the first time since 2016.
With the Giants going 9-7-1 during the regular season and also taking down the Vikings in the Divisional Round, Daboll is in the hunt to win AP Coach of the Year in early February. McKinney has backed his head man to take home that honor and a lot of NY fans feel the same way. What Daboll has been able to do with the Giants has been amazing to see and McKinney is enjoying the ride.