Hall of Famer LeRoy Butler knows elite safety play when he sees it.
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After all, Butler put on a Gold Jacket as a member of the 2022 Pro Football Hall of Fame class after forging a reputation as one of the most feared and versatile safeties of his era during a stellar 12-year career with the Green Bay Packers.
Butler, though, believes that new Packers safety Xavier McKinney has the chance not only to win the MVP award this season, but has the best traits of anyone to play the position in TitleTown.
“What he’s meant to this organization is somebody that’s reliable,” Butler said, during a recent appearance on my Between The Hashmarks Podcast. “But, Darren Sharper played with me … I’m just talking in a Packers uniform … Darren Sharper had the best range I’ve ever seen, from the middle of the field, sprint over, intercept it, or cause a fumble, Darren Sharper was mazing.
“Eugene Robinson had the best instincts I’ve ever seen; from reading tendencies, knowing what they were doing out of different formations, Eugene Robinson was the smartest safety to ever play the game. X is both of those guys.”
McKinney has been the definition of an instant impact player, making history Sunday as the first player since the AFL-NFL merger to intercept five passes in his first five games since signing with a new team the prior offseason.
“He has great instincts back there,” an NFL general manager told me of McKinney on Sunday. night. “And ball skills to match. He’s having a hell of a year, so far.”
LeRoy Butler Grateful Green Bay Packers could Sign Xavier McKinney
One team’s overpriced luxury piece is another team’s keystone.
That’s the reasonable takeaway after general manager Joe Schoen allowed the New York Giants’ second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft to walk out the building as a free agent this past spring.
Butler, though, is grateful for the fact that Brian Gutekunst and the Packers managed to ink McKinney to a lucrative long-term deal worth a four-year deal worth $67 million as the backstop and cornerstone of new coordinator Jeff Hafley’s secondary.
“I just want to give this bottle of Hall of Fame Leap Vodka to the Giants,” Butler joked. “For, I could throw Saquon Barkley in there, too, but we’re just going to stay with Xavier for a minute … Thank you for making him available. Thank you for not signing him to a long-term deal, thank you for letting [the Packers] sign a safety in his prime.
“We’re beyond ecstatic, because X is different. He’s a 25-year-old, but he’s a grown man inside a young man’s body. He’s a leader, and he’s what the Packers needed. We haven’t had a safety like this in Green Bay since Nick Collins. I know me and Charles Woodson played safety at a high level, but this is different.”
Through five games in a Packers uniform, McKinney has pulled down five interceptions while breaking up six passes, recovering a fumble and posting 20 total tackles.
“Xavier affects so much,” Butler says. “There weren’t really a lot of people in Green Bay who knew about him, when [GM] Brian Gutekunst brought him in and made him the highest-paid safety, at that time. There were the Minkah Fitzpatricks of the world, there were the Budda Bakers, these were the best safeties,
“But, wait, wait, wait, there’s another guy that people are missing, and we got him. If it wasn’t for McKinney, the Packers are probably 1-4.”
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