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The league will be releasing a list of participants for each individual Showcase starting this Friday in Dallas, and for Saturday's showcase in Houston. It will be interesting to see the first 200 player names for those two Showcases.

We are starting to see some names trickle out. The league has released a couple. Some players have announced their invites on social media. I have a little over 90 players confirmed for the showcases. That's a far cry from the 800 players that will be invited.

Right now, it's a mix of pro free agents and undrafted college football free agents. I am really curious about the current college football players that will get invites. None of that has been publicized. I do know of a few who applied, whether or not. They get the invites, remains to be seen. It's projected to be 5 current college players per showcase.

There are some veterans that will pass on the invites because they are waiting to see if NFL opportunities come up. Some of them quite frankly, do not want to take part in a combine style workout. Something they did when they were rookies. If you ran a 4.5 when you were 22, at 30 years old, who knows what that number will be. It's going to be intriguing to see if The XFL releases any of their workout numbers at the showcases publicly.

The AAF's top players are interesting. 40 plus of them are on NFL rosters right now. There are a few former AAF quarterbacks, who are intriguing to me. Brandon Silvers, Luis Perez, Zach Mettenberger and Johnny Manziel. All 4 of them are free agents. 3 of them worked with Dallas RB Coach Bobby Blizzard in Memphis. Probably the most popular player in the AAF was Trent Richardson. Will he be at one of these showcases? There are about 42 AAF players, that I know, that have received invites and that will be at the showcases. Most recently, Fleet QB Philip Nelson revealed that he will be at one of The Showcases.

Below is a list of undrafted college football players from the 2019 NFL draft class. These players have received invites. Some of them were in NFL rookie mini-camps but did not latch on to any rosters.

QB- Tanner Mangum- BYU
QB-Vincent Testaverde- Albany
RB- Jonathan Banks- Tulane
RB- Dominick Bragalone- Lehigh
OL- Kirk Barron- Purdue
OL- Venzell Boulware- Miami
WR- Trevon Brown- East Carolina
WR- Taivon Jacobs- Maryland
WR- Kavontae Turpin- TCU
DL- Chase DeMoor- CWU
DL- Anthony Johnson- FIU
LB- Alex Briones- CMU
CB- Nick Watkins- Houston
CB- Dante Redwood- Mercyhurst
FS- Jah' Shawn Johnson- Texas Tech
SS- Reid Miller- Montana
LS- Andrew Robinson- Michigan

Talented group. I realize that these are far from household names. Turpin has the most fame, but for all the wrong reasons. I think that Boulware and Barron have a shot. They both started and played at big college programs. They were both most recently in NFL camps.

Reid Miller had a great pro day and tested through the charts. Bragalone was a big time back at Lehigh. Taivon Jacobs is a unique story. Two ACL tears in college, was at Maryland for 6 years. So he's an older rookie. Former track star, who played well when he was on the field. Was recently in Ravens rookie camp.

I'm a huge NFL Draft nerd and do a full seven-round mock draft each year, so I try to really dig into the prospects. Of that list, Mangum (more so because I'm a Badgers fan and BYU beat Wisconsin this year!), Bragalone, Barron, and Turpin are the ones that stand out to me based on my research for the draft.

GregParks wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 2:25 pm I'm a huge NFL Draft nerd and do a full seven-round mock draft each year, so I try to really dig into the prospects. Of that list, Mangum (more so because I'm a Badgers fan and BYU beat Wisconsin this year!), Bragalone, Barron, and Turpin are the ones that stand out to me based on my research for the draft.

I do the same nerd stuff myself every year with the draft.

There will certainly be more of these players than the ones I found out about. Several of them are currently on 90 player rosters in the NFL.

Turpin might test through the roof. He’s intriguing because of his off the field issues.

Mangum is an intriguing qb prospect. He’s 25 years old. Mangum spent two years as a missionary before returning to BYU. He was a 4 star recruit coming out of high school. Tanner split time with Saints jack of all trades Taysom Hill. Tanner had some big games as a starter but the university never really seemed to be fully behind him.

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:51 pm The league will be releasing a list of participants for each individual Showcase starting this Friday in Dallas, and for Saturday's showcase in Houston. It will be interesting to see the first 200 player names for those two Showcases.

I'm a little surprised the league is making the list of players public. Don't get me wrong, I love that we know who's going to be involved in this thing, but I'm surprised in that when you're making the list public, you're also making public who doesn't end up getting signed and players and agents may not be hot on that getting out.

GregParks wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:54 pm

MikeMitchell wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:51 pm The league will be releasing a list of participants for each individual Showcase starting this Friday in Dallas, and for Saturday's showcase in Houston. It will be interesting to see the first 200 player names for those two Showcases.

I'm a little surprised the league is making the list of players public. Don't get me wrong, I love that we know who's going to be involved in this thing, but I'm surprised in that when you're making the list public, you're also making public who doesn't end up getting signed and players and agents may not be hot on that getting out.

It’s a good point. When NFL teams have rookie minicamps. They release the list of players who participate. A good number of the players don’t sign. Sometimes in the nfl, some young veterans will participate in these camps that do not have contracts. They will be asked to participate on a tryout basis. It happens every year.

In no way, do I mean this to be disrespectful. The majority of the 800 Showcase invites are getting an opportunity that they otherwise would not have been afforded elsewhere. For a lot of these invites. The XFL existing is the best thing that ever happened to them. The forgotten or lost player is getting a chance to keep their names out there.

Some of the veteran pro players that get invites. There’s a chance that they impress, sign XFL contracts and still end up back in the NFL before the XFL draft happens.

For all the AAF players who didn’t get NFL roster spots. The undrafted players that haven’t stuck anywhere in the last few years or even the few hundred players that get cut by CFL teams this weekend. These showcases are a god send. These players are being given a real chance to make a pro league.

There is an argument for keeping the names of the players private, as much as the league possibly can. However, I don’t think there’s a lot of harm being done to the players that don’t end up with contracts. The majority of these invites are players that have slipped through the cracks and those who have fallen victim to the numbers game. They have been largely forgotten.

The dozens of agents, that I have spoken to, are extremely grateful that their clients are getting a shot. It’s the ones that have sent a list of 20 players and have only gotten back 2 invites, that are disappointed. They are not mad at the league, they just wish that more of their clients were being invited.

Here’s where publicizing names can be problematic. The league should consider keeping quiet the names of current college players that are going to be participating in the showcases. Even though these college players are not effecting their eligibility by working out for the league. The XFL should attempt to keep these workouts on the hush hush, unless one of the players actually signs a contract.

That’s the major story here. Who will be the first college football player to sign with the league. It might be one of these kids at the showcases.

They're not going to be able to keep that under wraps, and trying to do so is going to make it look shady, IMO.

Tank55 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 10:47 pm They're not going to be able to keep that under wraps, and trying to do so is going to make it look shady, IMO.

Keep the current college players under wraps or the whole list under wraps?

Either, although I was referring to the current college guys.

Tank55 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 10:59 pm Either, although I was referring to the current college guys.

That will be hard. I agree.

There are some current college players in the transfer portal that have applied.

One aspect of these invites is the potential for injury. These are not contact practices but.... there's always a chance that a player can get hurt. Some college kids don't want to risk getting injured. Now if it's a player that's in the transfer portal and is not playing in 2019 anyway, it's less of a risk.

I have talked to Johnson and his family before and featured him on my podcast. Great kid!