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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Dan Benton

With Xavier McKinney out, Giants need a new defensive signal caller

New York Giants safety Xavier McKinney will miss a minimum of four weeks after suffering a broken hand in an ATV accident during the bye week.

Losing a star safety is difficult enough to overcome for the Giants, but they’re also losing a captain and defensive signal caller.

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McKinney was given the green dot during the offseason and ran with it. Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who relies heavily on his secondary, felt comfortable enough with McKinney to let him relay all the play calls.

Now the Giants are back to square one.

With Blake Martinez having been released and now with the Las Vegas Raiders, the Giants have some decisions to make. Martindale prefers his safeties relay play calls, but he also has to trust them to see what’s happening pre-snap.

Could the job fall to someone like Julian Love or Landon Collins, assuming he is signed from the practice squad? Or would Martindale fall back on someone like linebacker Tae Crowder, who has done it in the past?

Those are all questions and decisions the Giants will have to sort out this week before hosting the Houston Texans at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

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