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XFL Supplemental Draft


HoboRocket

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The XFL had a supplemental draft on Friday. The team's pools of players increased. Only 60 players were drafted between the eight teams, but teams will be carrying 70 players into training camp. There may be another supplemental draft or an open free agency period between now and minicamp.

QB Chase Litton, from Marshall, was FANTASTIC in the pre-season last year. He was probably the best rookie QB in the pre-season last season, but he was on the Chiefs, who probably didn't want a rookie back-up to Pat Mahomes in his first full season as a starter (understandable). He's been on their practice squad off and on since then. He has good arm talent and mobility, and was a real love-hate prospect leading up to the 2018 draft. It's confirmed that at least one team that drafted a QB in round 1 in 2018 had a 2nd round grade on him, but he ended up going undrafted. He landed with the Seattle Dragons as a league-assigned QB, which means that he's likely to be their default QB1 heading into training camp.


RB Marcus Murphy, a special teams ace, receiving back, and solid player over the course of the past several seasons for the Bills, ended up with the Tampa Bay Vipers. Murphy received limited touches behind guys like LeSean McCoy, Chris Ivory, TJ Yeldon, Frank Gore, and Devin Singletary the past few years, but he showed toughness to run between the tackles, elusiveness in the open field, great hands, and fantastic straight-line speed. He's a bit undersized, but if he shows well in the XFL after playing really well in a limited role in the NFL, he could earn himself a spot on a team like New England or Tennessee that values versatility in their committee backfields. 

WR Jazz Ferguson was fantastic in college. He's a rookie this year. He's 6'5", 227, and played college football at LSU, but failed a drug test as a redshirt freshman and was kicked off the team. He also had dealt with poor grades previously. He went to Northwestern State following the incident, and ended up having a terrific season with over 1,100 yards, 13 TDs, and almost 20 yards per reception. At the Combine, he ran a 4.45 forty and jumped over 37 inches in the vertical... INSANE at his size! He went undrafted, which is understandable with his red flags in a deep WR class that saw guys like Emmanuel Hall go undrafted and guys like Riley Ridley and Hakeem Butler fall to the last day of the draft. He signed with the Seahawks, where he was the talk of training camp, along with DK Metcalf. Then Ferguson was the Seahawks' star of the preseason, but got cut due to their deep WR group (with guys like Tyler Lockett, DK, Jaron Brown, David Moore, and John Ursua). He flat-out MOSSED some good corners in the pre-season, though. He's supposedly cleaned up his act, according to Pete Carroll, so if he dominates like he did in college and the preseason, he could easily find himself on an NFL roster. He landed with the Dallas Renegades. 

Terrance Williams and Marquette King, both established NFL players who have had trouble recently, went to the St Louis Battlehawks. Terrance Williams has over 3,300 career receiving yards in the NFL, and was a big part of the Cowboys' offense early in his career as Tony Romo's safety blanket. He was never as good of an NFL player as he was in college, where he was an ALL-American, but he was good when he was playing with Romo. He had almost 900 yards in 2015. However, he struggled playing with Dak Prescott and made some bone-headed plays, like a couple years ago when Dallas was in a close game, down by a field goal with no timeouts at the end of the game. He caught the football for twenty yards with nobody around him, putting them in field goal range, and instead of running out of bounds, he tried to juke out the safety and wound up getting tackled in bounds. The clock ran out and the Cowboys lost the game. Marquette King is everyone's favorite punter. He's athletic, can throw the football or catch the football on trick plays, tells jokes, makes tackles, and will play dirty if you make him mad. Fittingly, he was a Raider. However, NFL teams just don't feel that a punter, even a former All-Pro like King, isn't worth the headache. I remember him throwing a flag at the refs one time and it was hilarious.

Damon Sheehy is a legend. This is the guy that bluffed his way into a tryout and ended up making it into the NFL. His plan after being a good basketball player in high school was to play in the NBA, if I remember correctly, but college basketball didn't work out. Nobody wanted him at his small size. So he tried football. He went to Mesa Community College, but then learned that they don't have a football team. He played JuCo ball in the Valley, I think at Phoenix College. He ended up leading the country in kick return yards and return touchdowns while at Phoenix College, and then he waited for offers from major Universities. None came. He then put together his game film, and sent it to every single Power Five school in the country. No response. He then sent his film to every single Division 1 school, regardless. Still no responses. So then he was like, screw it, I'm going to go straight to the Pros. He looked for tryouts, and found a workout with the CFL. After paying a $100 participation fee and completing the workout, he learned that the CFL wasn't looking for new players. So then he tried out for the Arena League. That didn't work out, either. He tried, and tried, and tried again, and nothing happened. But he didn't give up. This is a dude that has worked his butt off his whole life. He eventually ended up homeless with all of his savings spent. Then, a friend told him about a tryout with the Cleveland Browns, and mentioned that Browns director of personnel Alonzo Highsmith would be there. When he got to the tryout and was checked at the door, Damon said "Oh, yeah, I know Alonzo. We're friends," and then he got in. Just like that. At the tryout, he looked good and ran a blazing-fast forty. Afterwards, if I remember correctly, Alonzo Highsmith talked with him and offered him a spot at Browns training camp. When he got there, he impressed. He received lots of praise from fellow Browns players, including Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham, Jr., who said that nobody could outwork Damon. The first time that Damon touched a football in the pre-season, he took it back for 80+ yards and a touchdown. It was a moment of triumph. However, moments are just tiny chunks of time, and for Damon, there were bad moments, too. In the last game of the preseason, he muffed a punt and then injured his hip. Teams have almost zero tolerance for muffed returns, which is why we've seen All-Pros like Pharoh Cooper get released from their team mercilessly after a bad game or an injury. Damon had both. After his release, the odds were set at 3:2 for him to be signed to an NFL active roster during the 2019 season, but the hip injury took a while to recover from. He was just drafted by the New York Guardians, and will participate in training camp with them. 

Eli Rogers is also a known commodity. He's a talented slot-only receiver that struggled to crack the Steelers' starting lineup. Anyone that's watched him, though, knows that he's a good player and possibly starter-caliber in the NFL. However, the Steelers had Antonio Brown, JuJu, and James Washington, and when Brown was traded, the Steelers still added Donte Moncrief and Diontae Johnson. It's a possibility that Rogers had simply priced himself out of the Steelers' range, or just that they weren't interested in re-signing a receiver that isn't practice squad eligible when Diontae Johnson is cheaper as a mid-round rookie and is virtually the same type of player. He was drafted by the DC Defenders. We'll see if he can succeed catching passes from Cardale Jones and Tyree Jackson.

Temuchin "Bucky" Hodges can be remembered by many as a very athletic tight end from Virginia Tech that just hasn't put it all together yet. He went to the LA Wildcats, where he will be catching footballs from Luis Perez and alongside former Rams pre-season hero and Colorado receiving record-holder Nelson Spruce. Bucky Hodges was a sixth-round pick by the Vikings in 2017, and has spent time with the Steelers and Jets, as well. He hasn't appeared in a regular season game, but he is a very toolsy player who could potentially develop behind the scenes enough to where, if he is productive in the XFL, could earn a role as a back-up tight end and potential red zone contributor in the NFL. He has the physical tools of an NFL starter, but considering that he's already been with three teams, it's unlikely that he's talented enough for that role. Still, tight ends develop more slowly than most NFL positions, so I wouldn't close the book on him just yet. 
Overall, there are a few noteworthy players that were grabbed in the supplemental draft, and who knows? Maybe these players could turn their respective careers around and end up back with the pros as significant contributors.

For the love of football. THIS is the XFL.

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For the full list of all XFL supplemental draft picks, here's the link: https://xflnewshub.com/xfl-players/full-list-of-xfl-supplemental-draft-picks-66-players-taken/

Also, could we get an XFL forum? Is that a possibility? I know that I'll be doing a lot of draft stuff while the XFL season is going on, but I'll still probably get bored and tune in to their games on the weekends. 

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