XFL.com says the new league is “a fast-paced global professional football league with innovative rules”, so it’s not exactly the NFL. There are some familiar players from the NFL who will be popping up in the XFL though. Hines Ward and Rod Woodson will be head coaches and then there’s these guys…
Five Former NFL Players In the XFL
Martavis Bryant
The former Pittsburgh Steelers NFL career was checkered, to say the least. Bryant was very good in his first two seasons in Pittsburgh catching 76 passes and scoring 15 touchdowns. Then his path became rockier and he eventually wound up on Jon Gruden’s Raiders team after a series of suspensions and serious injuries. Bryant was also suspended by the CFL as a Toronto Argonaut although that was caused by COVID restrictions at the border.
In 2022 Bryant should line up for the Vegas Vipers who will be coached by fellow Steeler Rod Woodson in February.
Josh Gordon
Talking of impressive wide receivers whose careers were affected by injury and suspension, here’s another one. Gordon is 31 now and has been waived by two different NFL teams in 2022, his football career now spans 10 years (although he was suspended for two full seasons). He amassed 252 catches, 4373 yards from scrimmage, and 21 touchdown receptions. Gordon’s last NFL game was on September 25th against the Raiders when he played just six snaps. He was released by the Titans on October 17th, having already been released by the Chiefs in August.
Gordon was selected by the Seattle Sea Dragons in the XFL’s supplemental draft. In Seattle, he’ll be catching passes from a quarterback who had a cup of coffee in the NFL, Ben DiNucci.
Vic Beasley
Beasley will suit up in Vegas alongside Bryant come February. The Falcons made him the eighth pick in 2015 but Beasley failed to translate his athleticism into sustained NFL success. He had 15.5 sacks in his second season but that was a false dawn. It appeared Beasley had come to terms with NFL life but he made just 18 in the next three years. In his final NFL season, he played a collective 10 games for the Tennessee and Vegas. In those games, he managed just four total tackles despite playing 198 snaps.
A.J McCarron
McCarron was the first Crimson Tide quarterback to win an NFL game in 28 years for the Bengals in 2015 but he had to wait until 2019 for a second start. He actually looked like a perfectly adequate NFL quarterback and in four starts he has won two games, thrown six touchdowns, and only three interceptions. He was sacked 20 times in those four games though, 12 of which came in the seven games he played in Cincinnati. Good offensive line play is rare for the Bengals as Joe Burrow can attest.
McCarron never hit the heights in the NFL as he did at Alabama when Brent Musburger observed “You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women” but the St. Louis Battlehawks have got themselves a very good quarterback.
Marquette King
King lead the NFL for punting yards in 2014 and is ranked as the fourth-best yards per punt in NFL history. He’s also had a tilt at this XFL thing before too, in 2020 King was a St. Louis Battlehawk. King is remembered more in the NFL for running on a fake punt and he’s infamous in rugby circles for his outspoken views.
Since his last XFL career, he’s become a musician who has released two albums. This time round King will be an Arlington Renegade and they will kick off their season against the Vegas Vipers.
