During the season, I’ll publish an “Around the XFL” column each week, looking at some of the news both on and off the field related to all eight teams. With training camps embarking on their fourth week, here’s my first tour around the XFL:
Arlington Renegades
Arlington held an open practice on Saturday at Choctaw Stadium, inviting fans to come watch and to pick their seats for the upcoming season. XFL News Hub’s Anthony Miller was on the ground for the event and shared pics and video from the event on Twitter.
The team had a couple notable visitors attend its practices this past week: Former USC head coach John Robinson, as well as former TCU head coach Gary Patterson…Offensive line coach Jonathan Himebauch was recently on an episode of The Markcast, talking about his previous XFL experiences as well as moving over from the USFL this season. When discussing players opting for the XFL over the USFL, he cited the difference in how each league lines up to the NFL’s offseason as a primary factor for many players…
LB Jessie Lemmonier, who was the team’s 5th round selection in the Front Seven phase in November, but opted to play in the USFL in 2023, recently passed away. He was just 25 years old…The offensive line got a boost when OT George Moore returned to the team after finishing the NFL season on the practice squad of the Denver Broncos. Moore was a 4th round Supplemental Draft pick…
Head coach Bob Stoops and WR Jordan Smallwood appeared separately on The Blitz 1170AM out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to promote the XFL and the Renegades. Stoops coached at the University of Oklahoma, while Smallwood played there for Stoops. Stoops spoke highly of the new ownership group and felt that the quality of play, TV deals, and attendance are all stronger than in 2020. When asked to highlight some players who have impressed in camp, Stoops mentioned all three quarterbacks as well as another one of his former college players, RB Keith Ford.
DC Defenders
DE Jacob Pansiuk was profiled on DC News Now, with the tie-in being he’s a former Washington Commander. In the story, Panasiuk mentioned his personal goal for the season, which is to lead the league in sacks…Last week, DC held its first joint practice of training camp with the Orlando Guardians. The teams play for real in Week 7 of the regular season…
Head coach Reggie Barlow and select players were in Washington to do media last weekend. Barlow was joined by Panasiuk and RB Brian Herrien on Fox 5 DC for a segment talking about the upcoming season…The team held a fan event in the area that weekend in addition to appearing with other media to promote the team and league…Coach Barlow was interviewed on The Franchise Tag podcast. Barlow mentioned that Scott Pioli, a former NFL general manager who serves as a part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship, played a role in getting him on the radar of the XFL’s management team. He also said the leadership of the league attracted him to the XFL…
The Defenders continued to make key roster additions since my column chronicling transactions up to that point in camp. In the last few days, they’ve added WR Chad Hansen, a 2017 4th round draft pick of the New York Jets with 20 regular season games under his belt; and CB Michael Joseph out of Dubuque, who has spent time with the Chicago Bears.
Houston Roughnecks
It’s rare for a team to put a position coach front-and-center for media appearances, but the Roughencks have done that with receivers coach Payton Pardee. He appeared on Houston Life TV as well as FOX 26 in Houston. Pardee’s ties to the city run deep: He’s the grandson of former Houston Oilers head coach Jack Pardee, and he played college football at the University of Houston…Players and coaches also volunteered at Houston’s MLK Parade earlier this month…
A recent signing onto the team was DL Tim Ward, who ended the NFL season on the practice squad of the Green Bay Packers. Ward has played 12 NFL games across two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets…While select team members and coaches were doing media in Houston, the Roughnecks hosted a Select-Your-Seat event for ticket-holders. They had the opportunity to meet players, tour TDECU Stadium, and gear up for the season. However, there was almost no promotion of the event on social media…
Veteran QB Cole McDonald was interviewed by Gareth Sith on The Franchise Tag Podcast. McDonald praised the level of talent in the XFL and predicted Houston would be throwing 50-60 times per game.
Orlando Guardians
Orlando was home to a press conference last week at Camping World Stadium featuring XFL Chairwoman Dany Garcia, Head Coach Terrell Buckley, and Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer. It served as an introduction of sorts to the area press. WFTV-9 was one of the local media attendees that gave coverage to the event. In terms of print media, the Orlando Sentinel has written up stories on the team’s training camp as well as on QB Deondre Francois, who played college ball at Florida State…
The Guardians wrapped up a joint practice with the St. Louis Battlehawks last week. In a video posted to the team’s Twitter account, Buckley spoke about the practice with St. Louis…The team made a change at one of their specialist positions, releasing P Andrew Anckle in favor of Johnny Townsend. Townsend was a 5th round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 2018. He’s been a part of six teams since his entry into the league five years ago, last with the Tennessee Titans in 2021. He brings 21 games of NFL experience to the Guardians…
Former NFL QB and current Guardians QB Coach Shane Matthews was on The Markcast last week to talk about training camp and evaluating the roster. The Guardians currently have just two quarterbacks after the release of Mitch Kidd, and Matthews didn’t rule out adding another at some point. He also mentioned that the team is not in a place right now to name a starting quarterback as the battle continues to rage on at that position between Quinten Dormady and Deondre Francois.
San Antonio Brahmas
The team held Family Day at practice where coaches’ and players’ families could attend…Head Coach Hines Ward appeared on The Jim Rome Podcast to talk about what attracted him to the XFL…The Brahmas were in San Antonio during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, participating in the city’s MLK March. Ward was joined by DE Justin Alexandre and QB Reid Sinnett for the event…
Thank you to the families of our Coaches & Players for making it out to our practice today!
The Brahmas added a couple of players with NFL pedigrees in recent days in TE Darrell Daniels and NT Javier Edwards. Daniels entered the NFL in 2017 and has played 61 games, mostly with the Arizona Cardinals. Edwards was originally signed by the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and played in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. The 325-pounder later joined the Cardinals…
Of the three new XFL cities, San Antonio was expected to be the team with the most local support given the popularity of its AAF franchise in 2019. Social media numbers have borne that out so far: The Brahmas’ Twitter followers are at 7,646 as of this writing, well ahead of Orlando (4,965) and Vegas (5,073). On Instagram, the story is similar: The Brahmas have 30.3k followers, while Orlando and Vegas trail with 25k and 27.7k respectively.
Seattle Sea Dragons
Head Coach Jim Haslett was rumored to be a candidate for the open defensive coordinator position with the Atlanta Falcons. Seattle fans won’t have to worry about losing their leader, however, as the Falcons filled that position on Friday by hiring New Orleans Saints co-DC Ryan Nielsen…Perhaps the biggest name in the XFL in 2023 is Josh Gordon, one of Seattle’s wide receivers. The team has featured him prominently and frequently in social media posts, and he’s also been one of the players traveling to Seattle to meet with fans and media.
While in Seattle, Gordon, Haslett, and QB Ben DiNucci took in a Seattle Kraken hockey game. The Kraken acknowledged this on Twitter, and the triumvirate were featured on the JumboTron during the game…The Sea Dragons’ first trade was announced on Saturday, as they sent OT Kai Absheer to the St. Louis Battlehawks for TE Charlie Taumoepeau (The Tweet misidentifies which team the players are being traded to). Offensive coordinator June Jones normally does not feature tight ends in his offense (the team didn’t have any on its roster prior to this acquisition), so it will be interesting to see where Taumoepeau slots in.
St. Louis Battlehawks
As expected, Head Coach Anthony Becht has been one of the stars of training camp on social media. He often records videos talking to fans about camp, and a video was posted of him mic’d up at practice… St. Louis has also posted an application for in-game DJ and public address announcer for the upcoming season…Two trades were announced by the league on Saturday, one of them involving the Battlehawks. OT Kai Absheer comes to St. Louis from Seattle out of Florida International University. He’s also been in the CFL and USFL…
On FOX-2 in St. Louis, the team’s VP of Business and Event Operations Brandon Williams was featured. A St. Louis product and former NFL player, Williams had a gig on the station many years ago breaking down St. Louis Rams games…Williams said 1,100 fans came out to The Armory in St. Louis for a fan event, which the Battlehawks heavily promoted both before and after on social media…In terms of ticket sales, Williams didn’t give any solid figure but said “we’re tracking really well” and “we’ve hit a lot of the goals we’ve had from a ticket sales perspective”…
With less than a month until their first home game, the Vipers still do not have season tickets or individual game tickets on sale. They did open up the ability for fans to put down season ticket deposits, however…On Sunday, the team had its media day where pictures and videos were taken for use on the upcoming ESPN broadcasts…
The ABC affiliate in Las Vegas, KTNV, has spoken to Vipers players as well as Head Coach Rod Woodson ahead of next month’s kickoff…While in Vegas, Woodson, QB Luis Perez, and DE Vic Beasley also met with other members of the local media to plug the upcoming season…Perez was a recent guest on The Markcast, talking about his time in spring football leagues throughout the past few years as well as his experience in both versions of the XFL…Chris Maathius, the sports director of KLAS-TV out of Las Vegas, was also on an episode of The Markcast to discuss details of the XFL’s negotiations with ballparks in the city, in an effort to land a home for the Vipers, before the league finally settled on Cashman Field.
