The New Orleans Saints completed their first offseason program with coach Kellen Moore and his staff last week. Among the players generating good reports from this portion of the Saints’ preparations for the 2025 NFL season was cornerback Ga’Quincy “Kool-Aid” McKinstry, a second-round draft choice from Alabama in 2024.
“He’s been a really steady player,” Moore said about McKinstry on Wednesday, the day of New Orleans’ final minicamp practice. “Really consistent through this whole process. He’s doing an excellent job. You can just tell, again a good example of those ones we’ve talked about in the past where your rookie year there’s a lot of things moving. That second year, you get a big second-year jump. And so, certainly he’s a great example of that.”
McKinstry’s second NFL start came in the Saints’ eighth game of the 2024 season, a week after starting cornerback Paulo Adebo suffered a broken leg in a 33-10 loss to the Denver Broncos on Oct. 17.
McKinstry missed the next two games because of a hamstring injury, and during that time, New Orleans traded cornerback Marshon Lattimore to the Washington Commanders. When McKinstry returned, he started New Orleans’ remaining seven games and played 479 of his season total of 680 defensive snaps.
McKinstry was among the nine rookie cornerbacks who played at least that many snaps last season. He and the Baltimore Ravens’ Nate Wiggins were the only rookie cornerbacks last season to face at least 60 passes and hold opposing quarterbacks to a completion rate of less than 55 percent and two or fewer touchdown passes.
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McKinstry will be working in a new defense in 2025, projected as a starting cornerback with Alontae Taylor, a 15-game starter in 2024, in the Saints’ secondary.
New Orleans’ 5-12 record in 2024 ranked as the franchise’s worst since the Saints went 3-13 in 2005. Moore took the reins in February after serving as the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles’ NFL championship season.
Former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley is New Orleans’ new defensive coordinator, and he has switched the Saints from a four-lineman defense to one with three.
While New Orleans is on its summer break, McKinstry still has football on his schedule. He will hold the Kool-Aid McKinstry Youth Football Camp for youngsters 7 to 15 years old on July 5 at Pinson Valley High School. While the event is free, campers needed to be registered to attend, and registration has reached capacity.
Before he earned All-American recognition from The Associated Press and The Sporting News in 2023 at Alabama, McKinstry was the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Mr. Football and Class 6A Back of the Year while playing for Pinson Valley in 2020, when the Indians won their third AHSAA Class 6A championship in four seasons.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.