Giants will not use transition tag on Xavier McKinney

On Tuesday, the safety market lost two key pieces, with the Buccaneers franchise-tagging Antoine Winfield Jr. and the Patriots transition-tagging Kyle Dugger. The Giants will pass on cuffing their high-priority DB.

Rumored to be a transition tag candidate, Xavier McKinney is now close to reaching free agency. The Giants will not place the lesser-used tag on McKinney, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo. This points to the Giants needing to compete next week with other teams on the open market. Using the transition tag on McKinney would cost the Giants $13.8M. Currently, the team holds more than $38M in cap space.

This decision opens the door to the Giants losing McKinney and Barkley in free agency. Barkley is viewed as the top running back available, and although that status does not mean nearly as much as it once did, several teams will undoubtedly be in on the two-time Pro Bowler. McKinney will be in line to sign for more money, especially with Winfield off the market and the Patriots having the chance to match any Dugger offer sheet.

As of late last week, McKinney talks were not believed to have started. The sides had tabled negotiations to 2024, but we are now less than a week from the legal tampering period. Beginning 11 a.m. CT on March 11, unsigned players can begin talking to other teams and reaching agreements. Since the tampering period’s debut, most top free agents agree to terms in that 48-hour window. Planning to pass on using tags this year, the Giants are in crunch time with their top free agents.

McKinney's talks may be a bit complicated. Despite missing chunks of two seasons due to injury, the former second-round pick said in January he views himself as the NFL’s most complete safety. He does not have a Pro Bowl on his resume. It would seem unlikely that the Alabama product agrees to terms with the Giants before seeing what the market looks like.

McKinney set a new career high in tackles last season with 116, reaching a personal best in pass deflections (11) and recording his second-best completion percentage allowed in coverage (63.1%). McKinney, 25, missed 10 games as a rookie and then eight in 2022. But he will certainly be one of the top defensive free agents available.

The Giants have seen a few safeties leave in recent years. After the Landon Collins, Jabrill Peppers and Logan Ryan exits (the latter being cut), the team lost Julian Love despite making multiple offers. The Giants factored in an eventual McKinney payment into their Love calculus, but both may be gone soon.