The Orlando Guardians earned their first win of the season on Saturday, and in doing so, dealt the DC Defenders their first loss of the season. So…how did they do it? How did the worst team in the league beat the best team in the league? The truth is this performance by Orlando had been building for some time, thanks in large part to the personnel changes the Guardians have made on offense over the first seven weeks of the season.
They’ve gone from an offense that struggled to put the ball in the end zone to an offense that can score at will. So it’s not about asking how they beat DC, but rather, how their offense changed so drastically during the season. With that in mind, here’s a position-by-position breakdown of how the Guardians have altered their personnel at each offensive position between week one and week seven, leading to their breakthrough victory.
QB: Paxton Lynch was added late in training camp, the first sign Orlando wasn’t exactly pleased with its quarterback room. When the week one depth chart was released, Lynch, Deondre Francois, and Quinten Dormady all shared first-team designations. Early in the season, the plan was for all three to get game reps: Lynch and Dormady played in week one, while Lynch and Francois played in week two. Eventually, Lynch became the unquestioned number one.
As the offense struggled, Lynch came under fire for his inability to avoid the rush and penchant for holding the ball too long. Lynch was finally benched in week five against Vegas, with Dormady replacing him, throwing for 256 yards and two touchdowns. It’s been Dormady’s team since, and he has revitalized this once-moribund passing attack. He’s been accurate, decisive, and has shown he can get yardage with his legs as well. Dormady is as big a reason as any for Orlando’s offensive turnaround. And he’s done all of this after sitting for several weeks while the XFL conducted an investigation into whether or not he shared plays with another team.
RB: Just three days before the first game of the season, Devin Darrington was placed on injured reserve, hamstringing the running back depth. Kelvin Taylor, who was waived at final cuts, was brought back to serve as Jah-Maine Martin’s caddy. Martin proved to be a serviceable, if one-dimensional, starter. Taylor averaged 4.2 yards per carry across 20 rushes but he was too similar in style to Martin. Without Darrington, the team lacked dynamism at the position. WR Deddrick Thomas saw snaps in the backfield to fill that role.
Darrington returned in week four and immediately split the snaps 50/50 with Martin. In week seven against DC, Darrington out-snapped Martin 52-22 and has moved into the starting spot per the week eight depth chart. Expect both to continue to get their share of totes, but it’s no coincidence the emergence of Darrington has dovetailed with Orlando’s offensive resurgence. Orlando carries just two true RBs on its roster, so Thomas has seen more time in the third-string position. At times he has shared that with a backup WR spot on the depth chart. As of week eight, he’s only listed at running back.
WR: Orlando has moved from a two tight-end base offense to three receivers as evidenced by the changes in how they presented their depth chart from week one to week eight. They’ve also made a number of in-season moves at the position in order to shore up the depth. Game one starter Stephen Guidry was waived on March 2, as was backup Dontez Byrd. Former Dallas Cowboy Lance Lenoir was brought aboard after week one, but he only had nine catches in four games and was placed on IR on March 27. JaVonta Payton was another expected impact player who didn’t work out; he was sent to Arlington in a three-team trade in early March. With Payton out, they brought in big-bodied Dan Williams. After playing sparingly his first two weeks on the roster, he logged over 50 snaps each of the last two games and he is now listed as a starter alongside Eli Rogers and Charleston Rambo.
Rambo has registered his two highest-graded games over the last three weeks according to Pro Football Focus’s grading system. Ten of Rogers’s 19 receptions on the season have come in the last three weeks. Prior to the game against DC, Orlando also signed KD Cannon, who had been on DC’s injured list for the first part of the year. Cannon ran a 4.41 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine in 2017, and he showed those wheels against the Defenders in hauling in a 41-yard touchdown pass. Three of the seven players who made Orlando’s initial 51-man roster at the position are no longer with the team. A fourth, Deddrick Thomas, a WR/RB hybrid, has seemingly been moved permanently to running back.
TE: The one consistently productive facet of Orlando’s offense this season has been Cody Latimer. Arguably the team’s MVP, Latimer is the highest-graded full-time offensive player on the squad per PFF and he leads the team in all major receiving categories. A former WR, Latimer plays the Y-tight end spot, split out wide or in the slot. Ryan Becker and Logan Carter play more of a blocking role as the in-line TEs. Becker began the season as the team’s primary long snapper, but was replaced on March 21 with the signing of Cameron Kaye. Becker wasn’t released, though, and was kept on the roster to solely play TE. He saw a season-high in snaps last week against DC.Carter has played in every game this season, usually contributing somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-30 snaps per game. He has lined up in the backfield as a fullback at times recently, a new wrinkle since Shane Matthews took over play-calling.
Orlando has loaded up on the TE position, bringing in Jaylen Smith and Jordan Thomas at mid-season, both former St. Louis Battlehawks. Smith was claimed off waivers on March 1 and has played just 57 snaps across five games. Thomas is the most recent addition, having signed just prior to week seven. He got up to speed quickly, catching two passes, including a highlight-reel touchdown, in 14 snaps. Thomas went viral for his emotional response on the bench after his TD. Having the 4.47 speed of Smith and the size (6’5″, 277 pounds) of Thomas can create mismatches of which Orlando has already taken advantage. Look for them to see even more playing time moving forward.
OL: The early-season woes for Orlando’s offense could largely be pinned on the ineffectiveness of the offensive line. For several weeks, they struggled pass blocking, they struggled run blocking, and they struggled with penalties. The line alone has committed 30 fouls in seven games. It didn’t help that the Guardians started five different combinations the first five weeks of the season. The lack of continuity showed. And it’s not like any of this came as a surprise: I identified Orlando’s offensive line as its weakest position group way back in November after the initial draft.
But when the calendar flipped from February to March, Orlando went to work patching up the position. They signed CFL veteran Brett Boyko, who has started every game at left tackle since. After a rough first two outings, he has put up solid PFF grades the last three weeks.At left guard, an injury to David Moore has opened the door for Jordan Ighofose. Often finding himself on the gameday inactive list early in the season, Ighofose has stepped in and started the last three games. He is now the highest-graded offensive lineman on the Guardians. The one constant has been ZeVeyon Furcron at center. He has started all seven games, but has also been flagged for the most penalties of the group (nine).
Fred Lauina missed the DC game with an injury; the normal starting right guard, he is now listed as the backup to Moore at that spot. Abdul Beecham has played all over the line, starting games at left tackle, left guard, and right tackle. He’ll be starting at RT moving forward, as the previous starter there, TJ Storment, was just placed on injured reserve. Storment himself was brought over from DC in a trade to fortify the line. Ja’Chai Baker, who opened the season as the starting left tackle, was waived on March 6. Also let go was backup Sunday Deng, who played the first game and is still the lowest-graded Guardian offensive player this season.
Orlando obviously thought the tackle spots were their weakest links, hence the additions of Storment and Boyko to start on the right and left respectively. TJ Bradley is now the swing tackle, replacing the injured Storment. Bradley started the season on IR, was released, then re-signed. On the inside, they shifted some folks around at guard to find the right combination. Like many teams, they still rotate players in and out of the lineup throughout the game; as the season winds down, it may be more advantageous to stick to a five-man grouping. Letting them get used to playing with each other could help cut down on penalties.
Coaching: For the first four weeks of the season, Robert Ford called plays as the team’s offensive coordinator. Head Coach Terrell Buckley was visibly and audibly upset with Ford’s play-calling at times while on the sidelines during the games. Ford, who had been out of coaching since 2011, was eventually stripped of play-calling duties after week four, though he remains offensive coordinator in title. Quarterbacks coach Shane Matthews now calls plays.
In the four weeks under Ford, Orlando averaged 12.25 points per game. In the subsequent three games under Matthews, that number has increased to 29.33 points per game. It’s a small sample size to be sure, and Orlando has made other moves (chronicled above) during that same time period that has contributed to the increase in scoring. But it’s clear Matthews is pushing a lot of the right buttons and has a better feel for the game than Ford. Orlando has gone hurry-up at times the last few games, something with which the offense has had success. They’ve also taken several deep shots per game; they haven’t always connected but just the threat of that can change how the defense lines up, and the Guardians can and have used that to get an edge.
Every phase of the offense has gone through substantial changes during the seven-week season thus far, all playing a role in Orlando’s offensive turnaround. The team’s playoff chances are slim with three games to go, but if nothing else, the Guardians can play spoiler and notch a couple more wins before the year is out. A month ago, the idea that the Guardians could be competitive down the stretch seemed like a pipe dream. Now, with the improvements made on offense, they’re a team those fighting for playoff spots should fear playing.
