Let’s play a game. I’ll give you the XFL stats for two players at the same position, and you consider which player you’d take on your favorite NFL team:
Player A: 60 receptions, 670 yards, 4 TD, 10 games played
Player B: 14 receptions, 154 yards, 0 TD, 8 games played
Got your answer? Let’s try another one, this time at a different position:
Player C: 143 completions on 229 attempts (62.4%), 1,894 yards, 14 TD, 3 INT
Player D: 63 completions on 99 attempts (63.6%), 668 yards, 3 TD, 5 INT
Player A is WR Jahcour Pearson of the Seattle Sea Dragons, who was not signed by any NFL team following the XFL season. Player B is WR Martavis Bryant of the Vegas Vipers, who was recently reinstated by the NFL after being suspended in 2018 under the league’s substance-abuse policy. He immediately signed with the practice squad of the Dallas Cowboys once reinstated.
Player C is QB Jordan Ta’amu, who led the DC Defenders to the XFL Championship Game and was named league Offensive Player of the Year. He lasted just a week on the training camp roster of the Minnesota Vikings, having been signed right at the end of the preseason. Player D is QB Drew Plitt of the Arlington Renegades, who was benched after week two in favor of Kyle Sloter. Plitt was just signed to the practice squad of the Cincinnati Bengals after the injury suffered by starter Joe Burrow.
The XFL and other spring leagues bill themselves as a springboard into the next level. NFL decision-makers are watching, and if you ball out, you’ll get an opportunity there. But the dirty little secret is it’s not that simple.
Of the 31 players who made the season-ending All-XFL Team as voted on by head coaches and directors of player personnel, only 16 – just over half – were signed by NFL teams. Seven of the 31 didn’t even get called for an NFL workout. And these are purported to be the cream of the crop of the league.
Dating back to XFL 2020, there were some “odd” signings as well, like TE Colin Thompson of the Tampa Bay Vipers signing with the Carolina Panthers when Thompson was a third-string tight end with the Vipers. Or the most obvious example, QB Taylor Heinicke, a third-stringer with the St. Louis Battlehawks who went on to become an NFL starter and is still in the league as a backup.
This version of the XFL, more so than the two previous, has sold itself on being a place where players who have just missed out on making NFL rosters, “Player 54” if you will, can come and show out, put quality tape together, and advance onto the NFL. And for those who don’t get that opportunity, ownership has made it clear they can make a good living playing in the XFL. But make no mistake: The allure for every player is making it to the NFL.
No player has been more outspoken about their XFL play falling on deaf NFL ears than Pearson. The league’s leading receiver has worked out for seven teams but has yet to sign his name on a contract. Pearson has taken to Twitter/X more than once to express his displeasure with being passed over.
whoever gimme a chance gone go down a legend @nfl saying my height is an issue well lemme show why its not in practice dats it 😅🤷🏾♂️ I wish I could walk on a team lol like I did @ Ole Miss 😂🤔
So why, then, are accomplished XFL players being ignored while those who accrued minimal playing time or pedestrian statistics are being signed? There are a couple of key reasons that could be in play here. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but are what I would consider the prime reasons we’re seeing some players signed while other, deserving players are not.
NFL pedigrees matter
Past performance does not necessarily indicate future results…but it doesn’t hurt. One of the reasons Bryant was in demand is because he has shown he can produce at the NFL level, to the tune of over 2,000 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns across four seasons. Teams may be more willing to take a chance on those players – especially if it’s only for a practice squad spot – as opposed to someone who doesn’t have that experience.
What’s in a workout?
Many former XFL players were signed through rookie minicamp workouts in May, where teams bring in as many as 50 tryout players or more, all vying for a spot on the training camp roster. Then there are workouts held by individual teams during the regular season. Those teams may be seeking injury replacements or specific positions to fill their practice squads, so they’ll bring in free agents at a single position and basically have them compete against each other at the tryout, signing the one that performs the best.
Three years ago, I wrote about what those workouts entail and how they come about. They are high stakes in that one’s performance can be the difference between being signed and continuing to seek employment elsewhere. For a guy like Bryant, it’s safe to say he impressed in his tryout with the Dallas Cowboys, enough for them to take a chance on someone who hasn’t played in the NFL in so long. I don’t know how Pearson performed in his seven tryouts, but the fact that he was not signed after any of them at least tells you there was some curiosity from teams about what he could bring to the table, but apparently, for whatever reason, they chose not to further pursue him.
It’s a size and speed game
As much as the NFL has made room for smaller players in a way they hadn’t decades before, size and speed still matter. Many of the players who ended up in the XFL had been disqualified by NFL personnel men for their size/speed combo. At the NFL Combine in 2014, Bryant measured in at over 6’3″ and 211 pounds. At the Ole Miss pro day in 2022, Pearson was 5’7″ and 178 pounds. That size brings durability concerns and pigeon-holes Pearson as a slot receiver. Fair? Maybe not, but the NFL has often lagged behind trends in college that have taken advantage of players who may not fit the traditional mold.
Stats don’t tell the whole story
The game I proposed at the top of this story was a little unfair. After all, stats without context don’t tell the whole story. For example, Bryant played much of the season in Vegas with rotating quarterbacks and a change of offensive coordinator early on. It’s difficult to get on the same page when three QBs play during a short, 10-game season, especially when the one who plays the most was as raw as Jalan McClendon was.
Whereas Pearson played in a pass-heavy offense in which the Seattle Sea Dragons threw the ball 72 more times on the year than did the Vegas Vipers. So while the stats certainly favor Pearson, there are mitigating circumstances to take into account.
Scheme fits and who you know are important
Pearson and Bryant are both wide receivers, but Bryant is more of an outside receiver and Pearson an inside receiver. And that matters when teams are looking to fit players into specific roles on the team. Pearson played in the wide-open June Jones run-and-shoot offense in Seattle, which is more of a college scheme than a pro scheme.
As far as the quarterbacks, there’s a reason Drew Plitt was brought back to Cincinnati, and it has to do with his knowledge of the offense gleaned from his time with the Bengals in last year’s training camp. It’s the same reason Reid Sinnett was brought back earlier in the year on the practice squad when it would seem more accomplished QBs were available: Sinnett was in camp with Cincinnati this summer. It’s better to bring someone in who already knows the offense, especially when it’s someone who is not going to get many reps in practice to learn the offense during the season. Plitt and Sinnett both fit that bill.
Ta’amu succeeded in Fred Kaiss’s RPO-based offense with the Defenders, but like Jones and his run-and-shoot, it’s a scheme more popular in college than in the NFL (though more NFL teams are embracing it, if not building their offense around it). Most teams in the NFL prefer players who can be drop-back style passers, and that’s not Ta’amu’s strength.
Colin Thompson’s signing with the Panthers in 2020 made sense when you consider that his college head coach at Temple, Matt Rhule, was at that time the head coach of the Panthers. Familiarity is an advantage in the NFL.
Scouting is an imperfect science
Scouts and coaches are human, and they miss on players all the time. Take a look at any of the recent lists of first round NFL draft picks and check out how many would be considered busts. And the folks who are doing the selecting have reached the highest level of their occupation. But they’re not perfect, and so many variables go into finding the right player at the right time. That goes for the XFL too – it’s why Heinicke was a third-stringer, why players like LB Diego Fagot were cut in XFL training camp yet were subsequently signed by NFL teams. It’s the human element that makes football the most interesting, but also allows for the most mistakes to be made.
XFL ownership has spent a lot of time positioning themselves as the “league of opportunity.” There’s no guarantees, however, that the opportunity promised by the XFL will lead to NFL success. Does spring football work? Of course. But as we’ve seen, for any number of reasons, it doesn’t work for everyone equally.
