The first huge loss of the NFL season was during the preseason when Andrew Luck announced his retirement. Since then, we’ve seen significant losses across the league. After Luck, we’ve seen Foles, Brees and Darnold injured as well as Rosthlisberger go out for the rest of the season with an elbow injury.
When it was announced Ben Rothisberger would miss the rest of the season Landry Jones started trending on Twitter. This was when a lot of Steelers fans not only learned that the XFL was returning; but that Landry Jones has been signed by the league and would be unable to return to the Steelers. On a side note, the league has interesting ties to the Steelers. When the original XFL folded, MVP Tommy Maddox went on to the Steelers, and eventually won a Super Bowl as backup to Rothisberger. Here we are in 2019, and The Steelers backup Landry Jones is the first quarterback signed by the league.
So far, it seems like good news for the league. To the naked eye they executed in the nick of time; and to a certain extent that is true. On the other side of the coin, it was just announced that The Steelers have signed Paxton Lynch. If you’ve been following the news, this is one of the quarterbacks the XFL was targeting during the Battle in Seattle.
Speaking of Seattle, Cardale Jones has just become a free agent again. Norm Chow showed interest in him when he was cut by the Chargers a few weeks back and it had seemed that he lost his chance. With all these injuries in the NFL, it may be still be difficult to get the guys you’re targeting.
It’s not just the XFL that’s working through pain points. During a recent town hall with Redblacks Head Coach, it was stated that the team was looking for a new quarterback. Specifically mentioning the difficulty finding players between the defunct AAF and the upcoming XFL.
As we’ve mentioned, we’ve only just finished the second week in the NFL season and we’ve seen a good amount of injuries that could impact the upcoming XFL Draft. It’s never fun to see a player get injured, regardless if they represent your team or not. Add on to it the anticipation of the XFL Draft, and it adds another layer to the mix. The more injuries that occur in the NFL can and will limit the XFL player pool.
We still have seven more tier 1 quarterbacks yet to be announced, and 800 players to full up the draft pool next month. We’re over 170 players confirmed for the draft, you can stay up to date with our XFL Draft Tracker.
