XFL Draft: Each Team Now Has a Slinger You Might Know

If Horton the Elephant ever wanders into a stadium where the XFL's in business, he's gonna hear more Who's than he ever did in any Dr Seuss book.

In fact, he coulda started at the new league's first player draft, which just wrapped up after two days of team execs wondering how in the name of Rudy they're gonna make chicken salad outta all this.

 

Here's how they went about their business:

One QB was assigned -- that's right, listen to Big Brother -- to each team before everything got started

The draft was then held in five separate parts with Phases 1-4 going for 10 rounds each and Phase 5 continuing until each team fills out its 71-man roster. Teams had 90 seconds between picks.

 

First, here were the groupings:

• Phase 1 — Skill players (QB, RB, WR, TE)
• Phase 2 — Offensive line (OT, G, C)
• Phase 3 — Defensive front seven (DL, LB)
• Phase 4 — Secondary (CB, S)
• Phase 5 — Open draft (all remaining players, including P/K/LS)

 

For all of founder Vince McMahon's showmanship, the draft's presentation was definitely lo-fi.

If anyone wanted to look in on it, what they got was was literally a video conference call with a stopwatch in the bottom right corner of the screen that someone had to manually reset with a mouse after every pick.

 

For the record, here are the slingers that were apportioned, along with various dudes who might've showed up on your radar screen somewhere during your fandom:

Dallas Renegades

• Coach: Oklahoma legend Bob Stoops.
• QB: Landry Jones, who played for Stoops in college and spent five seasons (2013-17) as Ben Roethlisberger's backup in Pittsburgh.
• Dude you might know: WR Tommylee Lewis, who was the intended receiver on the infamous Saints-Rams no-call in last year's NFC Championship Game.

DC Defenders

• Coach: Former Colts and Michigan OC Pep Hamilton.
• QB: Cardale Jones, the strong-armed former Buckeye who was drafted by the Bills in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL draft.
• Dude you might know: Safety Rahim Moore, who started for the Broncos for a few years.

 

Houston Roughnecks

• Coach: Former Hawaii and SMU head coach June Jones.
• QB: Connor Cook, who starred at Michigan State and started a playoff game for the Raiders in 2017.
• Dude you might know: RB André Williams, who starred at Boston College and had a breakout rookie campaign for the Giants in 2014.

Los Angeles Wildcats

• Coach: Former Packers associate head coach Winston Moss.
• QB: Luis Perez, who won the Harlon Hill Trophy in 2017 as the best player in D-II football and spent some time with the Eagles and Lions after playing well for the AAF’s Birmingham Iron.
• Dude you might know: Kicker Nick Novak, who kicked for six different NFL teams, one AAF team, and ranks 94th on the league's all-time scoring list.

 

New York Guardians

• Coach: Longtime Giants OC and Buddy Ryan sparring partner Kevin Gilbride.
• QB: Former Penn State star Matt McGloin, who notched seven NFL starts as a Raider.
• Dude you might know: QB Marquise Williams, who put up huge passing and rushing numbers at North Carolina before spending time in the NFL, CFL and AAF.

Seattle Dragons

• Coach: Former Seahawks QB and Redskins head coach Jim Zorn.
• QB: Brandon Silvers, who threw for more than 10,000 yards during his college career at Troy and spent time on this Jets' roster this past spring.
• Dude you might know: QB/WR Keenan Reynolds, who ran Navy's option attack to great success in college and was one of the Seahawks' final cuts in September (as a WR).

 

St Louis BattleHawks

• Coach: Former Bengals TE coach Jonathan Hayes.
• QB: Former Ole Miss starter Jordan Ta'amu, who led the SEC in passing last season and signed a contract with the Texans before being released in August.
• Dude you might know: RB Christine Michael, who was supposed to be a fantasy star for the Seahawks but never really panned out.

Tampa Bay Vipers

• Coach: Former Bears head coach Marc Trestman.
• QB: Former Georgia star Aaron Murray, who still sits atop the SEC's career TD list and spent a few seasons bouncing around the NFL.
• Dude you might know: RB De'Veon Smith, who enjoyed a decent career at Michigan.

 

You tell 'em, Horton.

Not sure if you're a link-clicker, but if you hit a few of those, you'll find a number of reports where the test of time hasn't been kind.

Hopefully for it's sake, the same won't be said for the XFL a few years from now.