After five consecutive seasons with double-digit losses, the New York Giants lost six fewer games in 2022 than they had in 2021 and made the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2016.

If the Giants snuck up on their opponents in their first season under coach Brian Daboll, it doesn’t figure to happen again in 2023.

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With New York on the field for practice this week, safety Xavier McKinney wants his teammates to forget about what happened in 2022.

“We’re just here to work, at the end of the day,” McKinney said on Thursday. “It’s a new year for us, a new season. We’re just taking it day-by-day. Being in this league, I know that the previous year does not matter. You’ve seen the worst teams be the best teams. You’ve seen the best teams become the worst teams. We don’t worry about last year. We just focus on today, then each and every day we’ll come in here and get better.”

The Giants posted a 9-7-1 record in 2022, and McKinney thinks New York has the ingredients for a better season because the team has improved “everywhere.” One contributor to the former Alabama standout’s optimism is something that didn’t happen: Giants defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale did not leave to become the head coach of another team.

“I think as a defense, I’m happy, and I know everybody else is extremely happy, to have Wink back,” McKinney said. “So just another year in the system, just being a lot more comfortable knowing what he wants to call, when he wants to call it. I think, all in all, it’s been great, and, like I said, I can’t pinpoint one thing, but I know that we’re building something special based on what we have.”

The Giants had a revolving door in their secondary last season because of injuries. That included McKinney, who missed eight games after fracturing three fingers while on a vacation trip during New York’s bye week. Including the playoffs, the Giants had an 8-3 record with McKinney in the lineup and a 2-5-1 record without him.

New York had only two defensive backs that played at least 51 percent of the snaps in 2022, and neither is with the team now. Safety Julian Love left for the Seattle Seahawks, and cornerback Fabian Moreau signed with the New Orleans Saints.

But the Giants return seven defensive backs who played at least 29 percent of the defensive snaps, including former Saraland High School standout Cor’Dale Flott, a third-round pick in last year’s draft.

New York also used its first-round draft choice on Maryland cornerback Deonte Banks on April 27 and signed former Oxford High School star and versatile defensive back Bobby McCain in free agency.

“It’s all been good,” McKinney said about the Giants’ offseason work on sorting out the secondary. “I think we’re all on the same page. It’s been fun just being able to build with whoever’s out there. Whether it’s a rookie, whether it’s a vet, it really doesn’t matter for us. As a unit, as a DB room, we like to be all as one. We like to be on the same page. We know no matter who’s out there, we’re always trying to get better and trying to work.”

While McKinney is preparing for his fourth NFL season, 10 of the Giants’ defensive backs are players with no more than one season of NFL experience.

“A lot of growth,” McKinney said of what he’s seen in New York’s offseason program. “They’re showing a lot of just willing to listen, willing to get better, willing to work to compete. I try to kind of get on them a little bit from time to time just to make them go a little harder, try to see what buttons I can push. But it’s been fun having them out there. Obviously, you’re able to — even though they’re young guys — you’re still able to learn from them, and they’re able to learn from us as well. It’s been fun just having the unit as one and being able to just work with these guys every day.”

McKinney has played in 32 regular-season games since joining the Giants in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. A foot injury caused him to miss the first nine games of his rookie season. When his hand injury sidelined him last season, McKinney had played 1,432 consecutive defensive snaps, the longest streak in the NFL at the time.

During the 2021 NFL regular season, only three players had at least 90 tackles and five interceptions – the Seattle Seahawks’ Quandre Diggs, Buffalo Bills’ Jordan Poyer and McKinney.

New York is in the final stage of its offseason program. In Phase 3, teams are allowed to conduct 10 days of organized team practice activity, often referred to as OTAs. The Giants held their first three OTA practices this week. No contact work is permitted during these practices, but teams can expand their offseason workouts to include 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.

New York has its mandatory minicamp scheduled for June 13-15 before breaking for the summer.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.