I'm sorry, and maybe this is my inner boomer talking, but you have to be absolutely lazy to actively pursue work in the NFL, then walk away from a six-figure job playing in another league with a national TV presence for half the length of that season. What other employer is going to offer Blake Bortles that kind of money?
And you have to be garbage at negotiation to not be able to land a QB with NFL regular season experience. How is the league that landed legit second-string QBs like Landry Jones and Josh Johnson going to expect me to tune in to watch Jawon Pass duel it out against Drew Plitt? Seriously? Come on.
QBs potentially available for XFL
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
Maybe he wanted to be done with football but if it was life changing level money he would keep playing, love of the game may have left but financial reasons may have been the only reason why he would’ve continuedjohnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:03 pm I'm sorry, and maybe this is my inner boomer talking, but you have to be absolutely lazy to actively pursue work in the NFL, then walk away from a six-figure job playing in another league with a national TV presence for half the length of that season. What other employer is going to offer Blake Bortles that kind of money?
And you have to be garbage at negotiation to not be able to land a QB with NFL regular season experience. How is the league that landed legit second-string QBs like Landry Jones and Josh Johnson going to expect me to tune in to watch Jawon Pass duel it out against Drew Plitt? Seriously? Come on.
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
You just answered your own questionjohnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:03 pm I'm sorry, and maybe this is my inner boomer talking, but you have to be absolutely lazy to actively pursue work in the NFL, then walk away from a six-figure job playing in another league with a national TV presence for half the length of that season. What other employer is going to offer Blake Bortles that kind of money?
And you have to be garbage at negotiation to not be able to land a QB with NFL regular season experience. How is the league that landed legit second-string QBs like Landry Jones and Josh Johnson going to expect me to tune in to watch Jawon Pass duel it out against Drew Plitt? Seriously? Come on.
Bortles is literally the falling tree. In what universe should they (or the USFL for that matter) be offering Bortles high six/low seven figures anyway?
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
Mike Mitchell said xfl tried to get him and has said xfl will be paying qbs high 6 figuresMGB01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:10 pmYou just answered your own questionjohnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:03 pm I'm sorry, and maybe this is my inner boomer talking, but you have to be absolutely lazy to actively pursue work in the NFL, then walk away from a six-figure job playing in another league with a national TV presence for half the length of that season. What other employer is going to offer Blake Bortles that kind of money?
And you have to be garbage at negotiation to not be able to land a QB with NFL regular season experience. How is the league that landed legit second-string QBs like Landry Jones and Josh Johnson going to expect me to tune in to watch Jawon Pass duel it out against Drew Plitt? Seriously? Come on.
Bortles is literally the falling tree. In what universe should they (or the USFL for that matter) be offering Bortles high six/low seven figures anyway?
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
Oh I'm sure they did, after all you can't really delve into P54 too much at QB for obvious reasons. I'm also sure it was a diligence mission. Bortles would have been the league's version of Manziel (well at least until a universe where the league survives long enough for Baker Mayfield), is that, say, the life we really want?herns wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:16 pmMike Mitchell said xfl tried to get him and has said xfl will be paying qbs high 6 figuresMGB01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:10 pmYou just answered your own questionjohnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:03 pm I'm sorry, and maybe this is my inner boomer talking, but you have to be absolutely lazy to actively pursue work in the NFL, then walk away from a six-figure job playing in another league with a national TV presence for half the length of that season. What other employer is going to offer Blake Bortles that kind of money?
And you have to be garbage at negotiation to not be able to land a QB with NFL regular season experience. How is the league that landed legit second-string QBs like Landry Jones and Josh Johnson going to expect me to tune in to watch Jawon Pass duel it out against Drew Plitt? Seriously? Come on.
Bortles is literally the falling tree. In what universe should they (or the USFL for that matter) be offering Bortles high six/low seven figures anyway?
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
I know I have said this before, but I will say it again.MGB01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:29 pm Oh I'm sure they did, after all you can't really delve into P54 too much at QB for obvious reasons. I'm also sure it was a diligence mission. Bortles would have been the league's version of Manziel (well at least until a universe where the league survives long enough for Baker Mayfield), is that, say, the life we really want?
This is professional sports. "Best player available" is not necessarily the goal here. The XFL is (or at least should be) trying to build the roster that will give them the best chance to draw viewers and ticket buyers, at a price that would allow them to cover the high expenses of running a professional spring football league—something that no professional spring football league, at least of the outdoor variety, has yet achieved. XFL2.0 arguably came the closest to doing so before the whole world got locked down.
Realistically, the best talent at an alternative league like this's disposal are the ones who were good enough to start some games in the NFL but were never enough to hold onto that job. I do have to concede something: I was under the assumption that Bortles had played fewer games as a starter than he had—and I see that he had three full years as the Jaguars' starter including a deep playoff run. He may have been more of a reach than I had thought. (That doesn't necessarily rule them out; after all, the UFL landed Daunte Culpepper and Jeff Garcia well past their prime, and both were solid players. But it would be a harder sell.)
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
Um, duh. So the easy question is where does Bortles do any of that?johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 10:28 pmI know I have said this before, but I will say it again.MGB01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:29 pm Oh I'm sure they did, after all you can't really delve into P54 too much at QB for obvious reasons. I'm also sure it was a diligence mission. Bortles would have been the league's version of Manziel (well at least until a universe where the league survives long enough for Baker Mayfield), is that, say, the life we really want?
This is professional sports. "Best player available" is not necessarily the goal here. The XFL is (or at least should be) trying to build the roster that will give them the best chance to draw viewers and ticket buyers, at a price that would allow them to cover the high expenses of running a professional spring football league—something that no professional spring football league, at least of the outdoor variety, has yet achieved. XFL2.0 arguably came the closest to doing so before the whole world got locked down.
Actually, the best would be a quasi-USFL1.0 strategy mixed with everything the JBA should have been (before it was outed as just another scam by Lavar Ball to showcase his kids for the NBA and push his brand that no one's heard of since, although that was quite obvious from the beginning). This league should be full of the "next" guys with some "names" sprinkled around them, not the other way around where the majority of the league is in their mid-late 20s and already had three or four years doing the preseason roster shuffle.Realistically, the best talent at an alternative league like this's disposal are the ones who were good enough to start some games in the NFL but were never enough to hold onto that job.
Even the mistakes the USFL made player-wise (as far as maintaining a budget) could have easily been picked up if the league wasn't largely made up of Reggie Fowler-esque schemery and World League-type yokels who couldn't run a kid's lemonade stand. The NFL's damn lucky that happened, whereas if George Allen came to the Blitz to merely re-create a 1983 version of the over the hill gang using mostly Redskins castoffs, and that multiplied to the rank and file of the league, not only would they not have minded they probably would have helped out and landed them on whatever cable network at the time was running 24/7 classics.
Sure the NCAA wouldn't be the happiest, being that this would sort of cut into their territory, but I doubt they're thrilled with the growing transfer portal and what used to be the once in a blue moon "college journeyman" who played at three or four different schools (Jake Heaps and Tom Savage come to mind, think I remember Jeff George having similar issues) now becoming a yearly thing--like how the hell is J.T. Daniels on his third school? Oliver Luck sure talked a good game when it came to this, but I doubt he ever would have implemented it (possibly cause of his relationships at the NCAA and, as I shot out for the last two years, an eye for a conference commissioner job).
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
XFl 2.0 was bleeding money with no paying tv deal. USFL 2022 was the closest to covering cost due to its structure and ownership being owned by a TV net thereby cutting out the middleman. This is based on reports of league cost in the $55-75mm range and TV ad revenue in the $65mm range (though some of that was for NBC in exchange for a undisclosed rights fee).johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 10:28 pmI know I have said this before, but I will say it again.MGB01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:29 pm Oh I'm sure they did, after all you can't really delve into P54 too much at QB for obvious reasons. I'm also sure it was a diligence mission. Bortles would have been the league's version of Manziel (well at least until a universe where the league survives long enough for Baker Mayfield), is that, say, the life we really want?
This is professional sports. "Best player available" is not necessarily the goal here. The XFL is (or at least should be) trying to build the roster that will give them the best chance to draw viewers and ticket buyers, at a price that would allow them to cover the high expenses of running a professional spring football league—something that no professional spring football league, at least of the outdoor variety, has yet achieved. XFL2.0 arguably came the closest to doing so before the whole world got locked down.
Realistically, the best talent at an alternative league like this's disposal are the ones who were good enough to start some games in the NFL but were never enough to hold onto that job. I do have to concede something: I was under the assumption that Bortles had played fewer games as a starter than he had—and I see that he had three full years as the Jaguars' starter including a deep playoff run. He may have been more of a reach than I had thought. (That doesn't necessarily rule them out; after all, the UFL landed Daunte Culpepper and Jeff Garcia well past their prime, and both were solid players. But it would be a harder sell.)
The UFL had to pay big $$$ for Culpepper and Garcia along with some coaches. And we know it was a mess. That was in 2009-10 time range, NFL salaries are way up, to get these type players would be huge expense.
Yes Bortles did start in NFL may games and as I've posted before he's (and similar) are not likely to play in alt-FB league for $100-200k. And 200k range is NFL practice squad territory, if not higher. BTW he's already made $47mm so unless he's got a bad habit or is otherwise pissed that away he's done.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-orleans ... -earnings/
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
He says he's going to try to make the US Olympic Equestrian team? What a lazy bum.
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Re: QBs potentially available for XFL
Any player who no longer has motivation to play for monetary reasons or otherwise is someone the XFL should avoid at all costs. Definitely not who you build a new league around. It’s been about 4 years since Bortles last started and I don’t think he’s been in a legit backup qb competition since 2019. He’s not a “best player available”. Him retiring probably did the XFL a favor.johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 10:28 pmI know I have said this before, but I will say it again.MGB01 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 05, 2022 8:29 pm Oh I'm sure they did, after all you can't really delve into P54 too much at QB for obvious reasons. I'm also sure it was a diligence mission. Bortles would have been the league's version of Manziel (well at least until a universe where the league survives long enough for Baker Mayfield), is that, say, the life we really want?
This is professional sports. "Best player available" is not necessarily the goal here. The XFL is (or at least should be) trying to build the roster that will give them the best chance to draw viewers and ticket buyers, at a price that would allow them to cover the high expenses of running a professional spring football league—something that no professional spring football league, at least of the outdoor variety, has yet achieved. XFL2.0 arguably came the closest to doing so before the whole world got locked down.
Realistically, the best talent at an alternative league like this's disposal are the ones who were good enough to start some games in the NFL but were never enough to hold onto that job. I do have to concede something: I was under the assumption that Bortles had played fewer games as a starter than he had—and I see that he had three full years as the Jaguars' starter including a deep playoff run. He may have been more of a reach than I had thought. (That doesn't necessarily rule them out; after all, the UFL landed Daunte Culpepper and Jeff Garcia well past their prime, and both were solid players. But it would be a harder sell.)
The XFL has probably at least 16 qbs left to sign. I think many of the eventual starters are currently on NFL rosters. Those will be the names you will be looking for.