XFL Season Preview: the XFL West Conference

Jan 15, 2021 3:46 PM ET | By: matan

The XFL West Conference Preview

The end of the NFL season is almost here. But this year, that doesn’t mean

the end of football is near. Rather than pine over the absence of football the weekend after the Super Bowl, football fans can get their football fix courtesy of the new and improved XFL .

Yeah, but is it going to be football we want to watch?

It isn’t going to be the same as the NFL, of course. If fans are going to be fair, they will keep in mind that these guys have only been practicing as a team for a few weeks. It will probably not be the best football or the cleanest right off the bat.

But many of these guys are former NFL, Canadian, and AAF players—along with being former college football standouts. There is going to be a lot of talent on the field. How good it is going to look in Week One, and the entire season may very well depend on the coaches.

So—who’s going to win the first season of the new and improved XFL? Without seeing how well they can play together yet it is hard to tell. But from what we know of the coaches and the talent on their respective rosters, we can make some pretty good educated guesses.

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The Best XFL West Conference Preview

Expectations are definitely going to be high for the Renegades out of the gate. But not necessarily because of the talent on their roster—it’s their head coach, former Oklahoma Sooners HC Bob Stoops.
During his time at Oklahoma, he developed some of college football’s most productive offenses year in and year out—despite losing players to the NFL and graduation every year. If he can work as well with professional players as he did with college players, the Renegades could be the team to beat early on.
Having one of his former college quarterbacks, Landry Jones, behind center will help. Jones will be joined in the backfield by Cameron Artis-Payne, and he will likely be hooking up with former Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis.

Next to Stoops in Dallas, the Roughnecks coaching situation may be the best in the league with June Jones as head coach.
Jones has made a career out of developing high-flying, high-scoring offensive machines. He was doing wonders with Jeremiah Masoli in the CFL before taking the job in Houston. He will have a couple of good college quarterbacks to work with in Connor Cook and Phillip Walker.
They will be throwing the ball to one of the best wide receiver tandems in the XFL in Sammie Coates and Cam Phillips.
Cottrell was a solid defensive coordinator in the NFL but failed in his brief stint as a head coach in the United Football League. Before joining the Birmingham Iron as the linebackers coach, he had been out of football for ten years.

The Wildcats may have the best overall coaching situation with the defensive-minded Winston Moss as head coach, Norman Chow heading up the offense, and Pepper Johnson heading up the defensive side of the ball.
Chow will have one of the more experienced quarterbacks running his offense in Josh Johnson. Johnson’s name was in the headlines during the NFL season when the Detroit Lions tried to sign him, and the XFL said no.
Lining up in the backfield with Johnson will likely be former North Carolina standout, Elijah Hood. But the most impressive position group for the Wildcats has to be their wide receivers headed up by Tre McBride and KD Cannon.

Considering the XFL has yet to play a game and nobody truly knows how the teams will perform, it might seem odd that everyone appears in agreement not to expect much out of the Seattle Dragons this XFL season. However, it is not hard to see why.
Jim Zorn was a great player during his day and a solid assistant coach. But his short tenure in charge of the Washington Redskins was unimpressive. He remained in the league as an assistant for a couple of years. But he has been out of football since 2012.
Having Mike Riley heading up the offense is a reason for hope, but he doesn’t really have a star at quarterback. Former AAF standout Brandon Silvers or B.J. Daniels will end up starting. Kenneth Farrow and Trey Williams are a good, but uninspiring duo. But it will be interesting to see what Keenan Reynolds can do.

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