Preseason rankings are kinda silly. They serve an important and specific purpose – filling the time between July 4th and the start of training camp, but it's hard to take rankings – based off last year's production – seriously when the new season is less than two weeks away (kinda).
That is, unless said preseason rankings say good things about the Green Bay Packers. Then they're serious works of journalism that deserve to be treated as such. For example, ESPN just dropped their latest rankings, a position-by-position look at every NFL team based on insight from anonymous league executives, coaches, and scouts.
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One article looked exclusively at safeties, and you don't need to scroll far to find the Packers' moment in the sun: Xavier McKinney ranked third this year, only behind Baltimore's Kyle Hamilton and Detroit's (sigh) Brian Branch.
The NFL still thinks just as highly of Xavier McKinney as Packers fans do
After the voting, McKinney ranked third among all NFL safeties.
"McKinney is one of four safeties to appear on every ballot in his career and trailed only Hamilton in first-place votes this year," writes Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. "Green Bay signed him to a four-year, $68 million contract before the 2024 season, and he validated that faith with the second-most interceptions among all safeties (eight) and a first-team All-Pro bid. McKinney also posted his second straight season with 11 pass deflections."
On one hand, third is pretty good. I don't see any Bears safeties in the top three. McKinney has been a star since the moment he landed in Green Bay, and like the blurb somewhat hints at, his track is currently looking like a [whispers] Hall of Fame-type career.
On another: third?! I know Hamilton is a good player, but he didn't have a good season last year. And he just gets the benefit of the doubt?! [Wisconsin accent intensifies] Classic East Coast ESPN bias. Hamilton's entire blurb boils down to "his stats aren't good, but trust us, he is." Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer when my really good safeties have really good stats.