In an interview with WFAN, Giants GM Joe Schoen said the plan is to “wait and get through the season” before discussing an extension with S Xavier McKinney.
Schoen explained the team has run through its extension budget for this season and would be hard-pressed to lower McKinney’s cap hit in the final year of his deal.
“X is a leader, he was a captain last year, he had the unfortunate incident, but he is a young player with upside,” Schoen said via the New York Post. “We’ll have to see where we are.
“We don’t have a lot of cap space to do much more. I think our pockets are empty. But he’s a guy who is important to us, that we’d like to be here long term. We’ll see how it plays out through the season. If we can get something done down the road, he’s somebody we’d like to have here.”
The unfortunate incident Schoen is referencing was an ATV accident during the team’s bye week last year that resulted in a hand injury that sidelined McKinney for several weeks.
Outside of that, McKinney has been a big hit as a draft pick, and could be in position to cash in with a big season. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, as the Giants faced a similar situation with DB Julian Love last year and he ended up leaving in free agency for a deal with the Seahawks.
McKinney, 24, is a former second-round pick of the Giants back in 2020 out of Alabama. He’s currently in the final year of his four-year, $8,391,049 rookie contract that includes a $3,662,581 signing bonus.
He’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in 2024.
In 2022, McKinney appeared in nine games for the Giants and recorded 45 total tackles, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a sack and five pass defenses.
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