XFL Week 1: What We Learned

The first week of XFL action is behind us and it sure was fun. The league ran a lot more smoothly than last year's attempt at a Spring league, the AAF. The league featured some good offensive play and some good innovations, like a kickoff rule that might have fixed one of football's most dangerous plays.

It was also a week where we learned a lot of things about the players on the field and how to readjust our expectations for what certain guys would do.

Every week, I'll be bringing you some thoughts on how the previous weekend's games went, plus a few fantasy risers and fallers. Let's get going.

Seattle Dragons @ DC Defenders

The Dragon's Three-Headed Running Back Rotation

One of the things I was most looking forward to in the XFL was how three running backs I liked -- Ja'Quan Gardner, Kenneth Farrow, and Trey Williams -- would function in a Seattle offense that's built to run the ball. And well...it wasn't the greatest showing.

Williams had a touchdown reception, but this basically turned into a fairly neutered committee, with Gardner having nine carries for 36 yards, Farrow getting seven for 41, and Williams getting three carries for 16. Seattle -- in an attempt to try to make up ground on a good DC team -- took to the air a lot, with Brandon Silvers throwing 40 passes.

The XFL is shaping up to be a pass-heavy league, and Seattle isn't built for that. We'll see in Week 2 how they handle things, but for now, they aren't playing to the strengths.

Cardale Jones, Y'all

Here are a few Cardale Jones clips that I tweeted out on Saturday:

I don't really have many comments on this except to say "Cardale Jones is going to play his way onto an NFL roster next year."

Los Angeles Wildcats @ Houston Roughnecks

The June Jone Offense is Still the June Jones Offense

College football offensive guru June Jones once designed an offense that made Timmy Chang break numerous passing records, so I was excited to see that offense unleashed in the XFL.

I wasn't disappointed.

Quarterback PJ Walker spent a lot of time looking deep and while he completed under 60 percent of his passes, he still threw for 272 yards and four touchdowns. Walker looked good, and this offense looks to be one of the league's best with their four-wide looks. They also got unexpected contributions in the running game from James Butler, who wasn't on the team's initial depth chart that they released this week. It's hard to trust any June Jones running back in fantasy, though Butler has a chance to stay involved in the passing game.

L.A. Needs Josh Johnson

The Wildcats will be fine when Josh Johnson is healthy, but Week 1 showed us that you need a good quarterback to move the ball consistently. Charles Kanoff started this game, and was 21-for-40 for 214 yards, a touchdown, and a pick. He did a good job getting the ball to Nelson Spruce, but not quite as well when it came to finding other receivers. This offense with Johnson in charge will be fine, but I'd be afraid of using too many of these players in DFS if Johnson's out next week.

Tampa Bay Vipers @ New York Guardians

The Vipers Should Think About A QB Change

It's early, but Aaron Murray is just not cutting it. Murray threw for 231 yards on 16-for-34 passing, didn't throw a touchdown, and was picked off twice.

The offense ran much more smooth when the team subbed Murray out for Quinton Flowers. Flowers was mainly used for some RPOs, although the "pass" part wasn't really part of those plays. He didn't get snaps as a traditional drop-back quarterback, but he showed at South Florida that he can be effective when throwing the ball. This is a spot where I'd keep my eyes peeled in terms of possible depth chart changes going forward.

While we're here, Marc Trestman made an interesting coaching decision at the end of the third quarter. Down 17, which is potentially a two-score game with the ability to attempt three-point conversions, the Vipers kicked the field goal, dropping that lead down to 14. But that's still a two-score game. During the game Trestman explained it as saying that his team was moving the ball well and should have three or four more possessions. Maybe this could have gone the way Trestman wanted, but Nick Truesdell's fumble that led to a New York touchdown kept that from really happening.

New York's Offense Looks Solid, But Is Solid Enough?

The Guardians offense was fine, with Matt McGloin throwing for and rushing for a touchdown. It was enough to get things done, and Twitter seemed to really like McGloin's performance, but I can't help thinking that this offense should have performed better against Tampa Bay.

McGloin threw for under 200 yards. The team had 44 rushing yards. They spread the ball out well, but no receivers were able to really establish themselves as The Guy for the team. It was just...not an afternoon that left me feeling like I'd learned anything about the New York Guardians.

St. Louis Battlehawks @ Dallas Renegades

Christine Michael... Yikes!

I'm not going to mention Michael in the "Fantasy Fallers" section below this because I'm mentioning him here, but he might have been the biggest loser of the day. I picked Michael with the 1.01 pick in our staff league because he was a talented player who showed promise in the NFL, but he was just so bad on Sunday.

Michael carried the football seven times. He finished with zero rushing yards, lost a fumble, and then also added one reception of a loss of one. So, eight touches for negative yards and a fumble.

Yikes.

Michael also just didn't look the part of a good running back. Every play reminded me of that one video of David Johnson where it looks like Johnson is running in quicksand. I can't imagine Michael has much of a role next week, especially when Matt Jones got 21 carries and gained 85 yards.

Philip Nelson Is Not Landry Jones

Landry Jones didn't play and Philip Nelson just isn't the same caliber passer that Jones is. But this was still a Dallas team that was playing in a Hal Mumme-coached offense. Mumme, best known for originating the Air Raid offense, is head coach Bob Stoops's offensive coordinator and this team was built to make plays in the passing game, but without Jones, nothing really got going. Nelson just didn't throw the ball deep, and when he did the ball would sail out of bounds or, as happened on the final play for Dallas, get intercepted.

I don't know if Jones fixes all the issues Dallas had. Landry Jones isn't, like, some NFL MVP level passer or anything. There's a decent chance that investing heavily in Dallas players in fantasy -- a thing that I know a lot of us did -- wasn't the best decision. But Jones will push the ball down the field, which should at least solve some things.

XFL Risers and Fallers

RISER: Austin Proehl (WR, Seattle Dragons)

I discounted the Seattle passing game and assumed no one outside of Keenan Reynolds would do much in it, but Austin Proehl proved me wrong. Sure, quarterback Brandon Silvers wasn't great, but he did manage to find Proehl for a pair of touchdowns. On the day, the former North Carolina wideout had a 25 percent target share for Seattle, ending up with five catches for 88 yards and the two scores. Reynolds was targeted seven times, catching just a pair for five yards.

RISER: Jordan Ta'amu (QB, St. Louis Battlehawks)

I didn't have high hopes for Ta'amu coming into this game. Dallas is supposed to have one of the league's better defenses. Ta'amu was the only one of the XFL's original eight quarterbacks without regular-season experience in a professional football league. He was a mystery.

Well, we've got a good number of clues now to help us sort through that mystery. Ta'amu passed for 209 yards on 20-for-27 passing, threw a touchdown, and didn't get picked off. But the biggest thing he brought might be his rushing, as his nine carries resulted in 77 yards. This feels like a league where a quarterback with legs can dominate, and Ta'amu is skyrocketing up my rest-of-season quarterback rankings. I'd have had him seventh coming into this game. Now, he's right there with Cardale Jones and PJ Walker at the top of things.

FALLER: Donnel Pumphrey (RB, DC Defenders)

Pumphrey was recently in the NFL and I think that had people thinking we'd see a pretty solid split between him and Jhurell Pressley, but Pumphrey had just four carries for five yards, and caught a three-yard pass. With it becoming clear how important passing is and also with DC using their quarterbacks in the run game as well, Pumphrey's role looks to be trending down.

POTENTIAL FALLER: Nick Truesdell (TE, Tampa Bay Vipers)

Truesdell was arguably the number-one tight end in the league, and at worst the number-two guy, but Sunday didn't go his way. After having a fumble called back early in the game, he went ahead and fumbled for real later on, with New York returning it for a touchdown. He ended the game with three catches for 49 yards, which put him second on the Vipers in receiving yards, but the issue of holding onto the football is a concern.

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