The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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MikeMitchell
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The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

Post by MikeMitchell »

This was kind of glossed over in the story about The XFL at the NFL combine, making full presentations to player agents on Thursday. The focus was on the XFL targeting players who don't get drafted into the NFL this April.

A big part of the story was XFL VP Doug Whaley revealing the league's 4 tier pay and player structure for all 8 XFL teams. The tiered pay structure was revealed back in November, when Oliver Luck was interviewed by Russ Salzberg, but some more clear details came out this week.

Here's a quick look at what XFL rosters will look like, with all 8 teams operating under a set salary cap. 45 player active rosters. That's 360 players figured into this tier structure reveal.

Tier 1 Players- Only 1 player per team. 8 players in total. All paid in the 250 to 600k per season, range depending on bonuses.

Tier 2 Players- Only 3 players per team. 24 players in total paid between 150-175 K per season.

Tier 3 Players- 23 players per team. That's 184 players total paid between 70-100k per season.

Tier 4 Players- 18 per team. That's 144 players being paid between 50-70k per season. The low end will probably be kicking specialists and long snappers.

The conservative projection of a team's total salary cap based on these numbers is 3.2 million per team. If the top QB is paid 250k, 2nd tier is 3 players at 150k each, 3rd tier is 23 players at 70k, and the 4th is 18 players at 50k. That's the low end projection. The high end projection is 4.65 million per team. The max level not counting win bonuses would put the league's total player payroll at 37.2 million for year one.

What's unclear is the practice squads for each team. Initially it was reported that each team will have 7 practice squad players per team. Bringing the individual team player totals to 52. Times 8, would bring the league total to 416 players.

What has been announced by XFL CEO Oliver Luck is a league list of signed players that do not make the final rosters, staying under XFL contract. These players will be part of a group available to teams when injuries occur. Something that Luck utilized in NFL Europe. So that teams are not scrambling the street looking for players when they get hit with a rash of injuries. So the XFL could have upwards of 450 players in total under contract. The number 450 has been mentioned by Luck in interviews.
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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For comparison, the 2018 CFL salary cap was $5.2 million CAD, which would be ~$3.9 million USD.
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SamTheRam28
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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So outside of kickers, punters, longsnappers, and other specialists, contracts at the low end will be competitive with AAF and the high end will blow them out of the water. With XFL going after college players in the transfer portal and UFAs, they could get some good talent with this money.
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SamTheRam28
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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MikeSherman wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 1:58 pm For comparison, the 2018 CFL salary cap was $5.2 million CAD, which would be ~$3.9 million USD.
CFL wildly underpays their lower tier players in favor of their bigger names. I could see a lot of those types of lower tier CFL guys jumping to XFL or AAF.
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MikeMitchell
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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MikeSherman wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 1:58 pm For comparison, the 2018 CFL salary cap was $5.2 million CAD, which would be ~$3.9 million USD.
That’s true. It looks like The XFL is going to be in that 4.5 to 5 million dollar cap range per team in year one.

I am not sure about the CFL’s win bonus structure. That could drive up XFL player salaries specifically on winning teams. A star QB on a winning team can make a lot more than his base salary. I remember this being the case for Tommy Maddox in the original XFL.
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MikeMitchell
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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SamTheRam28 wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:00 pm So outside of kickers, punters, longsnappers, and other specialists, contracts at the low end will be competitive with AAF and the high end will blow them out of the water. With XFL going after college players in the transfer portal and UFAs, they could get some good talent with this money.
The 24 players making up to 175k a season not counting win bonuses will be part of the league’s elite class of players. These could be the group of players on multi year deals along with the top tier.

You then have potentially over 184 players making close to 100k per season in tier 3.

It’s going to be interesting to see how that is initially determined. If the league is signing all the players to XFL contracts and then putting them into a pool to be drafted. Does that mean that a 1st round pick is a first tier player and that 2nd through 4th round draft picks are 2nd tier players.

There’s still some details to iron out. What if an undrafted Quarterback like hypothetically a Jake Browning is up for signing an XFL contract but his agent asks if he can go to Seattle, rather than being randomly drafted by another XFL team.

What will be interesting is when a player in the 4th tier outplays a player in tier 2. He’s going to ask for tier 2 money when he is a free agent. It makes for some intriguing possibilities. The team that hits on the lower tiers is going to win more games. There might be a top tier bust that doesn’t live up to his salary.
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XFL_FAN
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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MikeMitchell wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:37 pm
SamTheRam28 wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:00 pm So outside of kickers, punters, longsnappers, and other specialists, contracts at the low end will be competitive with AAF and the high end will blow them out of the water. With XFL going after college players in the transfer portal and UFAs, they could get some good talent with this money.
The 24 players making up to 175k a season not counting win bonuses will be part of the league’s elite class of players. These could be the group of players on multi year deals along with the top tier.

You then have potentially over 184 players making close to 100k per season in tier 3.

It’s going to be interesting to see how that is initially determined. If the league is signing all the players to XFL contracts and then putting them into a pool to be drafted. Does that mean that a 1st round pick is a first tier player and that 2nd through 4th round draft picks are 2nd tier players.

There’s still some details to iron out. What if an undrafted Quarterback like hypothetically a Jake Browning is up for signing an XFL contract but his agent asks if he can go to Seattle, rather than being randomly drafted by another XFL team.

What will be interesting is when a player in the 4th tier outplays a player in tier 2. He’s going to ask for tier 2 money when he is a free agent. It makes for some intriguing possibilities. The team that hits on the lower tiers is going to win more games. There might be a top tier bust that doesn’t live up to his salary.
And this is why a pay scale is so great. It makes it actually feel like a "real" league, instead of like the AAF where the kicker makes the same as the star QB.
Ready for the team reveals...again
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MikeMitchell
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Re: The XFL's Player Tier and Pay System Reveal

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XFL_FAN wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:52 pm
MikeMitchell wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:37 pm
SamTheRam28 wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2019 2:00 pm So outside of kickers, punters, longsnappers, and other specialists, contracts at the low end will be competitive with AAF and the high end will blow them out of the water. With XFL going after college players in the transfer portal and UFAs, they could get some good talent with this money.
The 24 players making up to 175k a season not counting win bonuses will be part of the league’s elite class of players. These could be the group of players on multi year deals along with the top tier.

You then have potentially over 184 players making close to 100k per season in tier 3.

It’s going to be interesting to see how that is initially determined. If the league is signing all the players to XFL contracts and then putting them into a pool to be drafted. Does that mean that a 1st round pick is a first tier player and that 2nd through 4th round draft picks are 2nd tier players.

There’s still some details to iron out. What if an undrafted Quarterback like hypothetically a Jake Browning is up for signing an XFL contract but his agent asks if he can go to Seattle, rather than being randomly drafted by another XFL team.

What will be interesting is when a player in the 4th tier outplays a player in tier 2. He’s going to ask for tier 2 money when he is a free agent. It makes for some intriguing possibilities. The team that hits on the lower tiers is going to win more games. There might be a top tier bust that doesn’t live up to his salary.
And this is why a pay scale is so great. It makes it actually feel like a "real" league, instead of like the AAF where the kicker makes the same as the star QB.
For better or for worse. The XFL is going for a pro league model. They are not interested in being a minor league and this tier structure shows it. It displays balance, competition and equality. It's probably why the league steered clear of the territorial/allocation aspect. Utah based players can't compete with a Florida team for homegrown talent.
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