The 2020 season of XFL couldn’t go beyond five weeks, however, thankfully for the league’s fans it wasn’t because of any shortcomings in the league per se. As has been the case with all sporting events across the world, Covid-19 caused mid-season suspension of XFL too. Although the league offered plenty of excitement even in a truncated season, there were many players who proved they have in them to make it to the NFL.
PJ Walker, the Quarterback of Roughnecks was the first to be picked up by Panthers for a sum of $ 1.565 million; then his fellow team-mate Deatrick Nichols too got sold to Saints for $610,000. Many more names followed, including Jordan Ta’amu (Battlehawks to Chiefs), DeMarquis Gates (Roughnecks to Vikings), Cavon Walker (Guardians to Steelers) and more.
The way NFL teams have been showing interest in XFL players, it’s sure that these transfers won’t be the last. Furthermore, such XFL to NFL movements are going to potentially impact the upcoming NFL draft and the NFL draft odds offered by the bookmakers too. Let’s now go over some more XFL players who could soon follow in their peers’ footsteps.
Josh Johnson, Offense, QB
Johnson, the talented 33 year old quarterback didn’t get a start until the second week of the league, yet threw for 1076 yards and had 11 touchdowns, with only a couple of interceptions. He has so far played with 13 NFL teams over the past 12 years, and was a part of the regular season with Washington in 2018. Thereafter, he moved to Lions during the last preseason stage, but wasn’t a part of the roster, coming close to signing up with them again in 2019 after Matthew Stafford got injured. However, XFL didn’t let that happen. Considering the experience that Josh Johnson has as a backup, apart from his excellent performance this season, it won’t be a surprise if he makes it to the NFL roster again very soon.
Cam Phillips, Offense, Wide Receiver
Cam Philips, the wideout for the Houston roughnecks was the best XFL receiver having scored 31 catches, 9 touchdowns and a total of 455 yards. He got better week after week and remained XFL’s ‘Star of the Week’ for almost 60% of the season. He went undrafted in 2018. As a result, he signed up with Bills that spring, in the form of a free agent.
He continued being a part of Buffalo Bills’ practice squad before making it to their active roster in the month of October. However, with only one catch in couple of games, he got waived after a month. Thereafter, he re-joined their practice squad and was then released last August.
Will Hill, Defense, Safety
The safety for St. Louis BattleHawks finished in third position for solo tackles in XFL, with 27 of them in total. This was apart from a couple of interceptions. He came out of Florida as an undrafted free agent in the year 2011, going on to play with Ravens and Giants for couple of years each. Will was also part of AAF, CFL, and Arena Football League.
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