Okay, so get this: The Green Bay Packers, arguably the most disappointing team in football last year, are entering 2026 with the league’s fourth-longest losing streak. They ended 2025 on a five-game skid after starting 9-3-1, somehow blowing multiple double-digit leads and stumbling into the No. 7 seed for the third year running. But amidst that absolute chaos, safety Xavier McKinney has been playing at a level that frankly, should be impossible given the team’s struggles. He hasn’t allowed a single touchdown as the nearest defender since joining the team in 2024. Let that sink in.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: A Historic Defensive Talent
This dude McKinney is just built different. He showed up in Green Bay in 2024 and immediately went off, finishing second in the NFL with eight interceptions and earning first-team All-Pro honors. He had 85 tackles, led the Packers with 11 passes defensed, and even snagged an interception in each of his first five games, the first player to do that on a new team since 1970. He hasn’t allowed a touchdown as the nearest defender, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Are you kidding me? He had 128 return yards after picks, the most by a Packer since 2011, and the most interceptions since Charles Woodson had nine back in 2009.
Then in 2025, he started 16 games, racking up 102 tackles, two interceptions, a sack, and forced a fumble. His 10 passes defensed tied for sixth among NFL safeties, and his PFF grade of 81.2 ranked eighth among 98 qualified safeties. Opposing quarterbacks threw at McKinney and put up a measly 60.1 passer rating. That’s elite, man, flat out elite.
A Team in Crisis, Despite the Talent
This is where it gets absolutely wild. Coach Matt LaFleur had one of the NFL’s top rosters, they even traded for star defensive end Micah Parsons 10 days before the season, and still, they went 9-8-1. They got to the Wild Card round against Chicago, had a 21-3 halftime lead, then gave up 25 fourth-quarter points and suffered a shocking 31-27 loss to their arch-rivals. Running back Josh Jacobs nailed it, saying, “No way you should lose games in this league when you’re up that much.”
It wasn’t a fluke either. They blew double-digit leads in the final minutes twice against Chicago and also against Cleveland, going 0-3 in those games. The odds of losing all three were 1-in-250,000, but somehow, they pulled it off. Safety Javon Bullard wasn’t sugarcoating it: “That (expletive), it’s starting to get damn-near embarrassing.” Now they’ve been hit hard in free agency and don’t even have a first-round draft pick.
So, what’s next for this squad? Green Bay’s first training camp practice is coming up on July 29. Can McKinney’s incredible, touchdown-denying individual performance possibly pull this team out of its collapse, or is he just going to keep shining on a team that can’t get out of its own way? We’ll see if they can turn things around.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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