Search this site

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: We are giving this week's POTW to LA Express linebacker Keith Rivers, who not only captained the Express defense to a 16-3 win, but also single-handedly produced the only touchdown of the game, a pick-six that had the big linebacker scrambling 67 yards, through and over tacklers on his way to the endzone. It was a huge play in a game defined by the Express defense.

Five weeks into the season and we are down to 1 unbeaten team, as Michigan prevails while Arizona is upset in Las Vegas. The Panthers are now the lone unbeaten heading into a Week 6 matchup with New Jersey. On the other side of the standings, Philadelphia remains winless after being shut down by the LA Express defense. In between we had a lot of great action this week, including a few more upsets as St. Louis stunned San Diego, Tampa Bay knocked off the Monarchs in Charlotte, and Chicago got the road win in Ohio. We start with our Big Story, an early kick off to the mid-season trading block, and then we will recap all the action, focus on some highlights for the week, and finish up with a preview of what should be an exciting Week 6 across the league.   Week Five Sees Trade Wire Catch Fire The trading block got active a week or two earlier than usual as several teams tried to address issues, either performance issues or injury concerns, with some trades in the first few days of the season’s fifth week. We saw 3 substantial trades just in the past 4 days as teams tried to fix areas of concern ahead of Week 6 action.   The moves began with New Orleans . Having lost both starting safeties to season-ending injuries (along with injuries to their top 2 defensive tackles), New Orleans felt compelled to act before the season got away from them. A team built on their defense, with an uncertain QB situation, the Breakers had no choice but to do something to shore up the secondary. They did that in a deal with Seattle that would bring SS Keanu Neal to the bayou.   Neal, who was part of a 3-man group at the position in Seattle, will now come to New Orleans and be shuttled not into the SS position, but shifted to free safety in an attempt to bulk up the position. In return, Seattle obtained a 4 th  round pick and a roster spot which allowed them to bring DE Joe Jackson off the practice squad to bulk up their line rotation. In New Orleans, Neal will now take on the new FS position, replacing Clyde Adams, while Terrance Brooks steps up to replace Will Harris at the strong safety position.   The second trade of the week was also injury-induced, as the loss of lead receiver Adam Thielen forced Pittsburgh to reconfigure their WR group. They moved Jarvis Landry to the lead position this week, placing untested Allen Lazard in the 2-slot so that Brian Quick could continue to occupy the slot, but that left some gaps in the team’s depth chart and their 3 and 4-receiver sets. So, this week, the Maulers agreed to send a 3 rd  rounder, along with LB Ulysses Gilbert to the beleaguered St. Louis defense in return for WR Albert Wilson. Wilson, a 5-year veteran of Atlanta and the Skyhawks, had only 14 receptions in 2019, and likely will only see limited snaps in Pittsburgh, but he gives Coach Fangio some depth behind Landry and Lazard on the outside.   Gilbert, a rookie who had 9 tackles in limited action with Pittsburgh, now joins the Skyhawk LB group, very likely acting as the primary swing backer, filling in for Nick Perry, Roquon Smith, or Trey Hendrickson if and when one needs a breather. It is rare to see a rookie traded this early in his career, but the Maulers were struggling to find a way to best use him and the need at WR was simply too serious to ignore, so when St. Louis made inquiries about Gilbert, Pittsburgh opted to swap youth for experience and add a needed receiver to their offense.   The third move of the week, and the only one not motivated by injury, occurred when Washington , hoping to add a bit more dynamism to their offense, went on the market to find a 3 rd  down back, a player who could prove effective in the passing game in a way that neither Anthony Allen or Orleans Darkwa had shown. Their hope was to find a team looking for some short yardage help, dangling Shane Vereen as a HB option in a straight swap of power for speed. They found exactly what they wanted in Oklahoma.   With some very good early outings from rookie Justice Hill, and with Hill clearly moving into the 2-spot behind Marshawn Lynch, Oklahoma was seeing little value in veteran Jahvid Best, but they could certainly use a back who could substitute for Lynch on some short yardage plays, and Shane Vereen would do just fine. And so, the Feds and Outlaws got to talking. Best is clearly a more versatile and productive back, so Oklahoma insisted on some draft day compensation and eventually got Washington to throw in a 3 rd  rounder along with Vereen to make the deal complete.   While all the newly traded players are likely going to have a steep learning curve in their new systems, with new coaches and new teammates, we expect that all three will get called into action this weekend as each of these teams tries to start the 2 nd  quarter of the season off with a win.   ARIZONA WRANGLERS 27   LAS VEGAS VIPERS 33 What looked like yet another Wrangler domination turned to one of the best comeback victories of the season as the Las Vegas Vipers came alive late in the third quarter and scored the final 21 points of the game to shock the unbeaten Arizona Wranglers and give Viper fans in Las Vegas a signature win they will be talking about for a long time.   It did not look like such a change of fortune was possible, as Arizona had largely dominated the game through most of three quarters, building up a 27-12 lead. David Carr had put up over 300 yards and had thrown TDs to both Victor Cruz and Chester Rogers, the defense had held Las Vegas to only 37 yards rushing and had battered Matt McGloin. In fact, it was not until McGloin was pulled after a nasty hit and Jeff Tuel was put in that the rally really began. But for most of the game, this looked very much like another convincing win for the Wranglers on their way to a 5-0 start.   The shift came after Arizona had increased their lead to 15 with a Ka’Deem Carey TD run with only 2 minutes left in the third. Up until this point, Las Vegas had managed only a lone McGloin to Dobson TD and a pair of field goals. They had amassed only 198 yards of offense, and their QB was getting hit on nearly every play, sacked 3 times, but certainly hurried and taken off rhythm a lot more than that by the Arizona front 7. When Coach Neuheisel opted to pull the battered QB from the field with 2 minutes left in the third, most Viper fans felt this game was a lost cause and the coach was saving his newly acquired signal caller for another day.   Jeff Tuel, a 7-year veteran with both Charlotte and the Vipers, came in, ostensibly to mop up the game and avoid any major turnovers that would make the score worse. And yet, Coach Neuheisel trusted the veteran backup, showing this with a play-action pass call on his first snap. Of course, Arizona bit on the run, you would expect a run on the first down with a replacement QB in the game. That assumption burnt them as Tuel immediately hit Arrelious Benn on a 25-yard completion that got the crowd’s attention. A short screen to Kareem Hunt turned into 18 yards, and just 4 plays later Aaron Dobson caught his second TD of the game, a 4-yard in-cutting route with a low throw that only Dobson could snag. The Wranglers seemed stunned, the Las Vegas crowd overjoyed, and the Vipers re-energized. They were now within 8 points and seemed to have snatched some momentum away from the swaggering Wranglers.   The defense picked up on the shift of energy and on the next drive got the first sack of the game against David Carr, an 8-yard loss on 2 nd  and 7 that set Arizona up with a tough first down to make. When they failed and the punt team came out, you could feel the shift in the winds throughout the (admittedly domed) stadium. The Vipers were pumped up, the Wranglers still a bit stunned. Las Vegas started the next drive from their own 18, and they slowly and thoroughly picked apart the Wranglers, demoralizing the Arizona defense with each successful play.   On the long drive, the combo of Hunt and Hardesty finally started to have some success. Hunt broke off a 9-yard run, Hardesty a 12-yarder, and while the drive did take 13 plays and nearly 5 full minutes, when Hunt took a pitch off the right side of the line from the 5, juked past the first tackler and dove into the endzone, you could feel that this game had completely changed, and that Arizona was simply reeling. Coach Neuheisel called for a 2-point PAT to tie the game, and Jeff Tuel delivered a perfect pass to TE Dustin Keller to tie the game at 27.   But, not all ties are truly ties. In this case, it was a tie, with over 9-minutes left to play, that signaled the end of Arizona’s success and sparked Las Vegas’s belief in their ability to win the game. Arizona would gain only 2 more first downs in the final period, and would suffer their 2 nd  turnover, a pick of David Carr that put Las Vegas in position to take the lead. While the Wrangler defense held Las Vegas out of the endzone, a chip shot field goal by Matt Gay put Las Vegas on top for the first time in the game. In the final minute of the game they would add another, removing any chance that a late kick would send the game to overtime.   But Arizona would not mount a late threat. They simply did not have it in them. Las Vegas held them off in the final seconds, sacking Carr for a 2 nd  time on the final play of the game, a fitting end that saw the unbeaten Wranglers stunned, staggered, and knocked out by the end. It was a Las Vegas title fight, and the underdog had come up with the upset. The Vipers improved to 2-3, which is hardly something to crow about, but knocking off the 4-0 Wranglers may well prove to be a pivotal moment for the club, a team just beginning to realize their potential. And while Jeff Tuel will return to his backup role next week, he may well have been the catalyst for a new start in Sin City, as the Vipers used his spark to ignite their hopes for the season.   WASHINGTON 12   PITTSBURGH 24 Jarvis Landry stepped into the “lead receiver” role and proved he deserved it with 6 receptions and 100 yards, but it was a whole team effort as the Maulers knocked Ryan Nassib out of the game after only 2 pass attempts, then CB Rasul Douglas scored on a pick six of a bad Tajh Boyd throw and Josh Cribbs returned a punt 81 yards for a score, all this in a 21-3 first quarter that the Feds simply never recovered from. With Boyd at the helm, the Washington offense ground to a halt and Pittsburgh kept the pressure on to move to 3-2 in the topsy-turvy NE Division. POTG:  Mauler CB Rasul Douglas: 8 Tck, 1 Int, 1 Def TD   MICHIGAN 26  OAKLAND 11 The Panthers are now the lone unbeaten as they knock off the Invaders in Santa Clara. LeVeon Bell had another 100-yard game, while Kirk Cousins went 24 of 29 and threw for 2 scores, but it was the defense once again that proved just too tough. Jimmy G was sacked 4 times and the Invaders only converted 3 third downs all game as Michigan’s defense proved the better of the two highly regarded squads. POTG:  Michigan DE Dee Ford: 5 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 Sfty, 1 FF, 1 FR   TAMPA BAY 35  CHARLOTTE 28 Dak Prescott earned POTW honors for his 378-yard, 4-TD effort as the Bandits once again win a shoot out to take a share of first and knock Charlotte back to the pack. Charlotte got 391 yards from Mitch Trubisky, who again escaped a game without throwing a pick, but two 4 th quarter Bandit TDs, one each to TE Jordan Cameron and rookie Deebo Samuel turned a 28-21 Monarch advantage into a 35-28 Bandit victory. POTG:  Bandit QB Dak Prescott: 16/26, 378 Yds, 4 TD, 0 Int   ORLANDO 34  JACKSONVILLE 27 Orlando joined the 3-way tie atop the SE Division by knocking off the Bulls in Jacksonville thanks toa Russell Wilson to Dwayne Bowe TD pass with 65 seconds left in the game. Wilson had 2 TDs on the day, both in the 4 th  quarter, and the Renegades held the ball for over 34 minutes, thanks largely to Rashad Jenning sand Knile Davis, who combined for 176 yards on the ground. POTG:  Orlando HB Rashad Jennings: 14 Att, 138 Yds, 1 TD   BALTIMORE 17  NEW JERSEY 12 Josh Jacobs recorded his first 100-yard game of his career, helping Baltimore survive the early departure of Ben Roethlisberger after a nasty hit by NJ DE Vic Beasley. Jake Locker only completed 9 passes, but it was enough to preserve a 17-6 halftime lead as the Generals, with MJD back in the lineup, simply could not get the ball into the endzone, settling for 4 field goals, and dropping to 1-4 because of it. POTG:  Blitz HB Josh Jacobs: 21 Att, 130 Yds, 1 TD   DALLAS 8   DENVER 14 A mid-spring snow squall dumped nearly 7 inches of snow on Denver during the Dallas-Denver game, and it made life miserable for both Joshes, Freeman and Allen. Freeman was sacked 4 times (2 of them slips on the slick surface and threw for only 154 yards. Josh Allen did not fare much better completing 18 of 28 for only 169 yards, though he did throw for both Denver scores. He also had 2 picks as he tried a bit too hard to play hero ball in the snow. The real heroes for Denver may have been the combo of Demarco Murray and Phillip Lindsay who managed to trudge out a combined 119 yards rushing despite the miserable footing and sloppy field. POTG:  Denver HB DeMarco Murray: 17 Att, 75 Yds   ATLANTA 7   BIRMINGHAM 37 Atlanta fans cannot blame this loss on Deshone Kizer, because it was not his job to defend Cam Newton, who finished the day with only 87 yards passing, but added 80 and a TD on the ground. HB Rex Burkhead added 2 rushing touchdowns, and little used Bo Scarbrough added his first career TD, as the Stallions moved to 4-1 by running the ball and playing solid red-zone defense. POTG:  Stallion LB DeMeco Ryans: 9 Tck, 2 Sck, 1 FR   CHICAGO 21  OHIO 16 The duo of Forte & Hill combined for 130 yards rushing and Sam Bradford completed 15 of 19 to help Chicago secure a road division win in Columbus. Chicago was outgained but not outscored as they forced Ohio to go for field goals on their first 3 red zone trips. Only a late Hackenberg TD pass made the game look as close as the final score does, but that score came with 45 seconds left and Chicago recovered the onside kick to put the game away. POTG:  Chicago LB Courtney Upshaw: 11 Tck, 1 TFL   HOUSTON 35  NEW ORLEANS 13 The defensive injuries just keep mounting for New Orleans, who lost a second DT to go with both starting safeties. And when you have that kind of loss, you get what we got, Carlos Hyde running wild for 175 yards, 3 TDs and a 9.7 YPC clip. Add to that TDs from Vernon Davis and Juju Smith-Schuster and Houston gets an easy win even without Colt McCoy, who sat this one out due to his jaw injury last week. POTG : Houston HB Carlos Hyde: 18 Att, 175 Yds, 3 TDs   PHILADELPHIA 17  LOS ANGELES 22 The Stars came out hot, with Derrick Henry scoring (on what would be a 144-yard day for him) and a pick-six in the opening quarter, but LA did not panic, coming back slowly over the remaining 3 quarters. Kyler Murray hit Hollywood Brown with their first rookie-to-rookie TD connection late in the second and the Express D held Philly scoreless in the second half, thanks in part to interceptions from Stephon Gilmore and Rahim Moore, with Moore’s occurring in the endzone for a soul-crushing turn against Philadelphia and Matt Gutierrez. POTG : LA HB Reggie Bush: 21 Att, 106 Yds   SAN DIEGO 10   ST. LOUIS 27 The Skyhawks stun San Diego thanks to a very solid game from Lamar Jackson, including a beautiful cross-body throw to Stevie Johnson for a score, and some surprising defensive fortitude. The Skyhawk D sacked Christian Ponder 4 times, held Ryan Williams to only 58 yards rushing and permitted only 2 San Diego third down conversions all game. POTG:  St. Louis QB Lamar Jackson: 27/36, 279 Yds, 2 TD, 0 Int   PORTLAND 10 OKLAHOMA 30 Kyle Lauletta was out of this game after tweaking his ankle in practice on Friday, and it was clear that recent signee Tony Pike was just not ready to start for Portland. Oklahoma took advantage, and a tired Portland defense gave up 61 of Marshawn Lynch’s 124 yards in the 4 th quarter as the Outlaws simply ran the Stags out of town. POTG:  Oklahoma HB Marshawn Lynch: 25 Att, 124 Yds, 1 TD   SEATTLE 14   MEMPHIS 17 The Dragons took a 14-7 lead into the 4 th quarter, but Paxton Lynch found Robert Woods for the equalizer and then moved Memphis into position for the game winner as the Showboats improve to 3-2 and drop Seattle to 1-4. Both Lynch and Jacoby Brissett would throw for less than 190 yards, and both back, Moreno and Gurley, struggled to reach 70 on the day as the defenses were ahead of the offenses all game. POTG:  Memphis CB Rashaan Gaulden: 7 Tck, 1 Int, 1 Def TD, 1 FF   Burfict Suspended for Head Shot Things are not going Vontez Burfict’s way this season. The veteran LB, in his 8 th  season with the Outlaws, lost his starting job this year to former Philadelphia Star Greg Lloyd Jr., has seen his snaps as a swing LB limited to about 20 per game, and now faces a 4-game suspension after taking a cheap shot at Portland HB Ben Tate. Tate had secured a first down on a 3 rd  and 2 run, but had lost his helmet in the process. While on the ground, Burfict came into the play late and laid a forearm to the back of Tate’s head and neck. The blow was seen by several Portland players, who pulled Burfict off their back, a move which produced a small melee before the referees pulled the players apart. Burfict was hit with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, but while Portland coach Matt LaFleur argued that an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and ejection were warranted, Burfict was allowed to remain in the game.  Burfict on a bad trajectory. Burfict would get his penalty this week from the league. He receives a 4-game suspension for hitting the un-helmeted back, along with a fine of $75,000 for the hit. While he could appeal the suspension, Burfict was informed by Coach Stoops that he would be sitting this week regardless, so it appears that Burfict will start his suspension without appeal. It marks another step in the wrong direction for the often-hot-headed linebacker. Burfict, who was once a mainstay of Oklahoma’s defense, with 70+ tackles from 2013-2016, has seen his role on the team drop considerably the past two years, with only 7 starts and 39 tackles last year, and his relegation to a rotational player this year. Adding on the 4-game suspension is certainly not a step in the right direction for the former ASU Sun Devil. With Burfict on suspension for the next 4 weeks, Oklahoma has brought undrafted rookie Lon Gannon up from the practice squad to fill the LB spot.   WR Terrance Williams Not a Happy Camper in Camping World Stadium When Terrance Williams signed with the St. Louis Skyhawks after 5 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, his goal was to be a featured receiver, a potential breakout star in the USFL. He had put up some good numbers in Dallas and hoped to do even more in the USFL. Well, that has just not materialized. Williams had only 11 receptions in his first USFL season, and was then sent to Orlando, where he again would have to fight for snaps and targets. His numbers increased slightly in 2018, with 19 receptions on 31 targets, seeing the field largely in spread formations. Well, things have not gotten better for Williams this year. Gimme the ball or gimme a trade. While Williams has seen 14 targets over the season’s first five weeks, bringing in 9 of them, he is also seeing his targets and his snaps being eaten away at by a mid-round rookie selection who has impressed Coach Rivera and the Orlando offensive coaches. Hunter Renfrow, a 4 th round pick out of Clemson, has started seeing the field more, and has made some nice plays on the 12 targets he has received in the past 3 weeks. He is not cutting into the snaps for either Brashad Perriman or Dwayne Bowe but is getting snaps in the 3-WR sets and spread formations that had been Williams in 2018. That has Williams upset, upset enough to make a public statement after this week’s game. It was not exactly a demand to be traded, more a plea to be seen and appreciated, but as we know with WR antics, very often a push for snaps or targets quickly becomes an off-ramp to another team. Williams has talent, and there are teams that have thinner WR groups than Orlando, so a trade may well be something Orlando has to consider, but their immediate issue is that they have a player who just does not believe his talent is being used right and is not afraid to say so.   Rumors Have Philadelphia in Talks with retired NFL QB Carson Palmer Sitting at 0-5, and with their longstanding starting QB Matt Gutierrez having the worst start to any season in his career, the Stars seem to be getting nervous. With few options available on their own roster, unless they want to start rookie Trace McSorley, a move that seems very unlikely, the Stars may well be looking for a Hail Mary to try to either motivate or mitigate Matt Gutierrez’s performance this year. We are hearing from reputable sources that Stars’ personnel staff have been in communication with retired NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, trying to see if the former All-Pro starter would be interested in jumping to the spring.   Would Palmer give up golf for a football encore? Palmer, who played 15 NFL seasons, primarily with Cincinnati, before shorter stays with the (then) LA Raiders and the Arizona Cardinals, retired from the NFL after the 2017 season. That puts him nearly 2 years out of his last game, and yet, there is interest. As an official NFL retiree, Palmer is not prohibited from signing with the USFL or from doing so outside of the NFL-USFL transfer windows. His status allows him to play for the spring league if he so desires. The issue, of course, is whether his 39-year-old body is able, and whether he wants to risk his health to do so. Palmer had several injury issues in the latter years of his NFL career, and certainly, after nearly 2 years of inaction, he likely is not prepared for the rigors of joining a USFL club midseason. So, is this for real? Is there a real effort to bring the retired NFL star to the USFL, or is this a feign? A move to push Matt Gutierrez? If so, it feels a bit extreme, the kind of psychological move that could backfire and even further corrode Gutierrez’s confidence and his standing with the team. It is certainly an intriguing possibility. It would also be a real world test of a theory some have had about NFL imports for a while. We know that many struggle in their first USFL season because they bodies have not had time to recover after playing in the fall, but would a player who was retired for 18 months be able to jump right in and have success? Palmer could be a very interesting case study if it happens. Finally, while we are not sure whether Coach Harbaugh is fully on board with the move, whether the personnel team is acting in advance of any directive from Harbaugh to find a solid 2 nd  option, or if this is all just a lot of smoke with no fire here at all. What we are sure of is that the Stars are beginning to look like a team that is cracking, and that is not good for Coach Harbaugh or anyone on the team. Yes, Gutierrez has struggled this year, but it is also true that the Stars have struggled getting Derrick Henry on track, that their defense (even with Channing Crowder providing much-needed leadership) has struggled to get teams off the field on 3rd down, and that the Stars have lost 4 of their 5 games by less than 7 points, meaning that they have been in every single game this year. Is blaming the QB really the solution?   New Orleans continues to face issues on defense as a 4 th  starter is lost. The Breakers are now down both starting safeties and their top two defensive tackles. For a team that built some playoff runs off their defense, this year could be a true test of Coach Lathon’s ability to plug and play on that side of the ball. And while the list of players certain to miss action this week (and beyond) is nice and short, there is no shortage of names on the lists of doubtful and questionable for action this week, including some pretty big names on defense across the league.   OUT DT        Daniel Ekuale              POR      Broken Leg         IR DT          Ricky Jean-Francois      NOR      Back                     IR LB           Vontez Burfict                  OKL       Suspension       4 Weeks HB         Kerryon Johnson              BIR         Back                     1-2 Weeks   DOUBTFUL DT          Kevin Vickerson              MGN     Eye WR         Donte Moncrief               OAK      Miniscus TE           Jack Doyle                    DEN      Hernia LB           A. J. Hawk                        SD          Shoulder LB           Bobby Wagner               OAK      Hand DT          Gabe Wright                  PIT         Hamstring     QUESTIONABLE LB           Roquon Smith                STL         ACL Strain CB          Chimdi Chekwa              OHI       Abdomen G            Ross Pierschbacher      LV           Knee TE           Luke Wilson                     SD          Eye LB           Ryan D’Imperio               MEM     Neck   San Antonio’s Unique Expansion Outlook While both the San Antonio Gunslingers and New England Steamrollers are gearing up for a summer and fall of ticket sales, marketing, hirings, and draft preparation, the Gunslingers have one more task to complete. As part of the deal that allowed the Texas Outlaws to be sold to a group of Oklahoma investors and relocated to OK City, the expansion San Antonio Gunslingers will be able to hold a small, and very focused, expansion draft exclusively of Oklahoma Outlaw players. The terms of the agreement have been known since the deal was cut back in 2016. The new club in San Antonio can sign up to 8 players who are members of the Outlaw roster as of Week 16 of the 2019 season and who were also members of the 2016 Texas Outlaws. Essentially, they get to “bring home” 8 players known to the fans in Texas and San Antonio.   Eight players does not a roster make, and yet, when we look at the names of those who were members of the 2016 Texas Outlaws and are current members of the 2019 Oklahoma Outlaws, it seems clear that the new Gunslingers could very well pick up some major talent, the kind of talent an expansion club rarely has access to, while also simultaneously gutting the Outlaw roster. Among those who would qualify for the “Back Home” Outlaw-to-Gunslinger expansion pool are QB Joe Flacco, HB Marshawn Lynch, receivers Marquise Goodwin and Justin Hunter, tight end Julius Thomas, and 3 of Oklahoma’s 5 starting O-linemen: LT Roger Saffold, RT Dennis Kelly, and RG Herman Johnson.  On defense, there is veteran DT Luis Castillo, DE Chris Harrington, and three quality Outlaw linebackers in Chad Greenway, Jonathan Moulton, and Casey Matthews. We should also throw in cornerback Pacman Jones and both Oklahoma’s punter, Jeff Locke, and kicker, Kai Forbath.   That is a lot of starting-caliber talent (or even All-USFL talent) still on the Outlaw roster and very likely to be there for San Antonio to select. So what do we think will happen in September, when this targeted draft occurs?   If we had to name players we think San Antonio will jump on, we start with Joe Flacco. While not the nimblest of quarterbacks, Flacco is a proven commodity, a former All-USFL player and a face for the franchise. Even if Oklahoma had the option to protect him, we think they would let him go, because he is likely only looking at 1 to 3 more years of action. That works for San Antonio to draw back fans, but for Oklahoma, they can then move on and look at a younger option in the position, and a more mobile QB who fits better with Coach Stoops’s spread concepts.   We don’t think the same is true for HB Marshawn Lynch. Yes, he is having a revival of sorts this spring, but the expansion Gunslingers are more likely to find quality HB talent in the general expansion pool, including significantly younger talent, than if they opted to sign Lynch. We think he stays. The same is likely true for other players in their mid-30’s like DT Luis Castillo or LB Chad Greenway. They are savvy and talented vets, but at most the Gunslingers might get 1 year out of them. Better to look at some players who were new to the Outlaws back in 2016 and who could have 5+ years of playing time for the expansion Gunslingers. We like Pacman Jones, Casey Matthews, and OT Roger Saffold as good options for San Antonio, and they may also look at speedster Marquise Goodwin (not really young, but still quite capable) and tight end Julius Thomas. Regardless of which players the Gunslingers select, they will have a bit of a leg up on the other expansion club, New England, who does not have that additional player pool, and they may well weaken Oklahoma at the same time, though some fans of the Outlaws would argue that freeing up cap space could be as valuable if not more valuable than retaining some veteran players. An interesting point, and one we will see play out in the weeks following Summer Bowl 2019.    Atlanta Reveals New Look and it is “Fire” The first of four new Under Armour looks for USFL clubs was revealed last night in Atlanta, where the Fire showcased their uniforms for the 2020 season. The new look retains many of the elements of recent looks, leans into an ombre effect to produce a “fiery” look, and includes a new alt uniform that focuses on the team’s secondary logo, a firefighter’s shield.   The primaries are very much in line with past Fire looks, including orange jerseys with navy sleeves and side panels of navy with a stripe of orange to gold ombre. This same striping continues on the pants, creating a single stripe from knee to chest. The team’s secondary logo appears on the sleeve and the tertiary “ATL” logo is above the nameplate. The primary includes two pant sets, a white set and a navy blue set. The helmet is unchanged, remaining navy with a navy facemask and the stylized orange and gold flames unaltered. The Fire also revealed a throwback look, not to their 2006 rebirth, but, with permission from the now-Dallas Roughnecks, to the 1995 look. This look features the original helmet flame decal, more traditional striping, and the team’s original “Flaming A” logo on the navy sleeves.   The biggest splash, however, is with the ALT look, called “Station 404”, a reference to Atlanta’s primary area code. For the first time, Atlanta will wear a helmet with their secondary logo instead of the large wraparound flame decal. The logo, featuring a firefighter’s shield with two crossed fire axes is placed on a “spark gold” helmet. The helmet also features an orange stripe which shifts to navy both at the front plate and the rear bumper. In both transitions the number “404” forms part of the transition. The area code number also appears on the pants, which are gold with a thick navy stripe that includes an ombre center stripe morphing from orange to navy. The alternate look also features the team’s first ever navy jersey. The jersey has gold numbers, trimmed in white, orange sleeve cuffs, and a single side panel stripe in an ombre effect from gold at the waist to orange at the arm.  Fire fans have been in love with the alternate logo ever since it was released back in 2006 with the expansion “rebirth” of the Fire. Now they can see it on the field in the new alternate look. The Fire, of course, hope to suit up in the new look in the 2019 post-season, but sitting at 1-4, they are going to have to “catch fire” to have an opportunity to do so (sorry for the bad dad-joke pun there.)  Week six offers up a Friday Night double header of solid divisional rivalries as Atlanta heads to Charlotte and Arizona has their rematch with Denver. Those are two really nice matchups and sure to produce some fireworks to kick off the weekend. Then, on Saturday, we get more divisional play with Phillly at Baltimore and Seattle at Oakland, but our favorite Saturday game is an inter-divisional matchup of teams off to strong starts as the surprising 4-1 Chicago Machine travel to SoCal to face the 3-2 San Diego Thunder. These two don’t face off very often, so it could be a game with some surprises in it.   On Sunday we start off the day with a Northeastern battle as 3-2 Pittsburgh heads into DC to face the 1-4 Washington Federals. We also have a battle of 3-2 clubs in the Southeast who are hoping to erase bad memories from 2018 as Tampa Bay heads into Orlando for a heated Florida Derby. At 4pm we have St. Louis and Las Vegas, both hot off upset wins this week, going head-to-head in Wynn Arena, and then for the weekend’s “dessert” it is Houston at Birmingham, a battle atop the Southern Division between the defending league champions and the upstart Stallions under new head coach Todd Haley.   Friday @ 7pm ET              ATLANTA (1-4) @ CHARLOTTE (3-2)                     NBC Friday @ 9:30pm ET        ARIZONA (4-1) @ DENVER (2-3)                             ABC   Saturday @ 12pm ET      PHILADELPHIA (0-5) @ BALTIMORE (4-1)         ABC Saturday @ 12pm ET      NEW ORLEANS (2-3) @ JACKSONVILLE (2-3)    FOX Saturday @ 4pm ET      CHICAGO (4-1) @ SAN DIEGO (3-2)                       ABC Saturday @ 4pm ET     OHIO (2-3) @ OKLAHOMA (2-3)                              FOX Saturday @ 7pm ET         MICHIGAN (5-0) @ NEW JERSEY (1-4)                  NBC Saturday @ 9pm ET      SEATTLE (1-4) @ OAKLAND (2-3)                           ESPN/EFN   Sunday @ 12pm ET   PITTSBURGH (3-2) @ WASHINGTON (1-4) ABC Regional Sunday @ 12pm ET        PORTLAND (2-3) @ MEMPHIS (2-3)           ABC Regional Sunday @ 12pm ET         TAMPA BAY (3-2) @ ORLANDO (3-2)                    FOX Sunday @ 4pm ET         ST. LOUIS (2-3) @ LAS VEGAS (2-3)                        ABC Sunday @ 4pm ET          DALLAS (2-3) @ LOS ANGELES (4-1)              FOX Sunday @ 8pm ET        HOUSTON (4-1) @ BIRMINGHAM (4-1)               ESPN/EFN

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: As much as we love a good Carlos Hyde outing, we have to give it to Dak Prescott in Tampa Bay, who knows that every game it is his job to simply outscore the opponent, and once again he did just that, throwing 4 touchdowns and adding 378 yards to his season total as the Bandits moved to 3-2 as part of a 3-way tie atop the wide open Southeastern Division.

A good week for fans of down-to-the-wire football as we had several games with slim margins, from an overtime battle between the Breakers and Stallions to games decided by late scores in San Diego, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Ohio, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma, this was a week for edge-of-your-seat fandom.  With the week’s results we are now sitting at 2 unbeatens (Arizona and Michigan) and only 1 winless club (Philadelphia) at the one-quarter mark of the season.  We have some emerging stars, some surprising teams, and a pretty good first quarter for the 5 new coaches in the league.  We will cover all the action of the week, give you some first quarter analysis, and take a look at our first Power Rankings of the season. It’s all happening now, so let’s get to it with our big story, two players on pace for record-breaking seasons. Are several  “Record Pace” First Quarters on Pace to Make History? We don’t want to ruin this, and we know that pointing it out after only 4 weeks might jinx the whole idea, but we have some serious thoughts about record breaking seasons already in the USFL.  We have seen this before, of course, and we know that there are times whereas the heat and humidity pick up in the summer, teams and players tend to melt a little, and what started as a potential record-breaking season turns into a very solid but just shy of record book season.  But, this year, more than most in recent years, we are seeing several players who are legitimately ahead of the pace to set some major league records, and we thought we should point that out so you can follow their progress for the remaining 12 weeks.  Bell is living large so far this season. LeVeon Bell, who, two seasons ago, set 2,000 yards as  his target, challenging himself to not only break Herschell Walker’s 30+ year old record of 1,767 yards rushing, is well on his way perhaps not to 2,000, but to over 1,800 yards.  Now we know that with Eric Dickerson setting the NFL record at 2,105 yards it seems odd that Walker’s record has held so long in the USFL, but we have to remember that the spring league has always been more pass-heavy than the NFL.  Three yards and a cloud of dust has never been the USFL way, so it is not surprising that Walker’s 1,767 has held this long.  Just look at the difference in rush attempts. The NFL practically has a player with 400+ attempts every year, and certainly 350+ from several players every season, while the USFL has only ever had one player in its 37 seasons cross the 400-yard plateau, Michael Turner with the 2008 Chicago Machine had 402.  Even Walker, in his record-setting debut season only had 396.   LeVeon Bell, so far, has topped out at 377 attempts and 1,617 yards, but this season, in his first 4 games he has 458 yards, an average of 114.5 yards per game, and on pace for over 1,800 total.  Can he sustain this all season?  Will Coach McDermott let him?  Those are two huge questions, but you know that Bell wants that record, and, if Michigan keeps winning by feeding their bell cow that ball, why would they stop.  This could be a record Aready to break if Bell can stay healthy and keep grinding out those 100-yard games.  Man, we hope we did not just double jinx him. Bell is not the only player on pace for a major league record.  Mike Evans may actually bust open an even bigger one.  The Houston wideout has 512 yards in 4 games, and you can do the math. Multiply that by 4 and you get well over 2,000 yards.  That has been a magical number that USFL receivers have had as a dream since the league began.  All USFL fans know that Eric Truvillion remains the only player in either the USFL or NFL to top 1,900 yards, having done it 3 times (1985, ’86, and 92) with his 1986 total of 1,959 yards setting the USFL record.  It was the pro football record until 2012 when NFL receiver Calvin “Megatron” Johnson topped him by 5 yards with a 1,964  yard season.  But still, that 2,000 number would be momentous, and Evans is on an offense that will certainly not shy away from feeding him the ball.      If that were all we had, we would be very excited to follow Bell and Evans through the season, but we are only 4 games in and we already have a DB with 5 picks, meaning that in ¼ of a season he is halfway to tying the league record of 10 in a season.  Charlotte Free Safety Tre Boston has those 5 picks, and he certainly has the talent to keep snapping up more.  But, we have come so close so often, and it is so hard for a stat like this to be fed by the team, since it depends not on his own teammates so much as the other team’s actions.  Can Boston break Elbert Shelley’s 1997 record as the only 10-pick season in league history?  Can we see 11?   Calais is loving his role in Wranglerville. Oh, and lest we forget, Calais Campbell is still a monster, still destroying left tackles and terrifying QBs.  He has 8 sacks in 4 games, which is a pace we have seen before.  It would put him at 32 for the season, an insane number, but still 2 shy of his 2009 record of 34.  Think about this though.  Campbell remains the only player in league history to score 30 or more sacks in a season.  He has done it 4 times, and his record is from 10 years ago.  Could he bookend his career by tying or setting a new record in his 12 th  season?  As if this legendary player needs anymore career highlights, could Campbell have two record-setting seasons a decade apart?  Are you going to tell him he can’t?  Sure, he is the nicest guy you would ever want to meet off the field, but he is an absolute force of nature between the white lines, and I, for one, am not going to bet against him.   Oh, and just to throw this out there, while at present there are no USFL QB’s on pace to cross the 5,000 yard marker this year, we do have 7 different QBs on pace to cross 4,000 yards, which would be the highest number to do so in one season in league history.  It is no easy feat, but there are some great QBs on that list of 7, including league leader Dak Prescott, overdue MVP candidate Colt McCoy, 2-time MVP David Carr, two other former MVPs in Dallas’s Josh Freeman and Baltimore’s Ben Roethlisberger, along with 2018 breakout player Matt McGloin in Las Vegas and our early pick for the 2019 breakout player, strong armed Denver QB Josh Allen.  We could legitimately see a league record for passing yards (by all QBs) and for the most 4,000-yard passers in one season.   That is a lot of records and a lot of excitement on the individual level.  For all you fantasy players out there, we expect you are also very much on board with these record-pace performances, so let’s sit back and enjoy as the USFL continues to provide great sports entertainment and performances to amaze and delight us.  (OK, call marketing, I think I just sold the USFL to America right there!)   DENVER GOLD 28    OKLAHOMA OUTLAWS 31 It may have been something of an undersold matchup between a 1-2 Denver squad and a winless 0-3 Oklahoma team, but this Southwestern Clash turned out to be one of the most entertaining games of the early 2019 season.  The Outlaws could not let themselves fall to 0-4.  Denver had a shot at getting to 2-2, so both teams were playing with a lot of passion.  We also got to see a player who may be emerging as one of the stars of 2019, as Josh Allen threw for 4 touchdowns in a game that showed off a wide range of skills.  We got to see Marshawn Lynch return to being the human battering ram we want him to be.  We saw Oklahoma find some weapons in TE Mark Andrews and free agent acquisition Mark Clayton, and we saw a huge defensive play turn the tide.   The game started off with Josh Allen and the Gold offense picking apart an Oklahoma defense that has come under a lot of fire. It took the Gold barely more than 3 minutes to march down the field before Allen found Michael Crabtree on a nice 27-yard TD toss.  It was a play that showed off Allen’s mobility and arm strength, as the big QB escaped the pocket, rolled to his right, and just as he headed out of bounds he launched the ball up the field to an open Michael Crabtree.  It was a play that looked unlikely to work, but produced the first score of the game.   Oklahoma responded with a drive of their own, powered by a pair of solid Lynch runs, but also one in which Joe Flacco relied on his tight ends, completing 3 passes to the combo of Andrews and Thomas, with the latter catching the 3-yard TD that evened the score.  Oklahoma would take their first lead 6 minutes later when Flacco again hit on a short TD toss, this time to former Showboat Mark Clayton.  The back-and-forth continued with Allen guiding the Gold down the field for an equalizer, connecting with Golden Tate for the scoring play, but also getting a very nice 27-yard scamper from Phillip Lindsay on the drive.   This back and forth continued into the third quarter.  Oklahoma got a go-ahead field goal just before the half, to go into the locker room up 17-14.  They added another midway through the third to take a 6-point lead, but that was undone by an Allen to Tate TD toss, his second of three on the day as that combo has become red hot over the first three weeks of the season. Allen would return to Tate for a 3 rd  score midway through the 4 th  quarter, giving the Gold an 8-point lead with 6:47 to go, and with the Gold defense playing better in the 2 nd  half, it looked like Oklahoma may be in trouble.   But, after a nice punt from the Outlaws pinned the Gold back at their own 5, the play of the game helped Oklahoma reclaim momentum, even the score, and deflate the Gold.  Unheralded defensive end Jordan Willis made the play of the game, chasing down a bootlegging Josh Allen, and clipping his arm just as the QB looked to dump the ball off.  The ball fell from Allen’s hand rolling into the endzone, where Willis was able to fall on it for the fumble, recovery, and defensive TD combo.  It was a play that caused OGE Energy Stadium to erupt, and when Joe Flacco hit Justin Hunter with the 2-point conversion pass, the game was tied and Oklahoma was feeling that their losing streak might just be ready to end.   The Oklahoma defense was energized, and with 3:18 left on the clock, they would not give Denver a chance to take back the lead.  A near pick on 2 nd down and a sack of Allen, the 4 th  on the day, on 3 rd  down forced the Denver punt.  Joe Flacco would do the rest, hitting Dede Westbrook for a 20-yard gain on the first play of the ensuing drive, then connecting with Andrews for a first down on a key 3 rd and 9, a play that put them in range for kicker Kai Forbath. Three plays later, after a shot at the endzone nearly produced a touchdown (Westbrook’s right foot hit the edge line and it was ruled incomplete), Forbath would come in and kick a 42-yarder to give Oklahoma the lead with only 12 seconds left.    The Outlaws and Gold both now sit at 1-3, but both see reasons to be hopeful for the rest of the season.  Allen will recover from his costly fumble, and it seems clear that he is looking very much like a playmaker.  Oklahoma seems to have finally found an offense that works for them, utilizing a 2WR-2TE-1HB formation to provide options for Joe Flacco and keep Marshawn Lynch as a power runner without sacrificing play action possibilities.  Both defenses still have question marks, but this game showed that these two teams are capable of playing entertaining and winning football.     WASHINGTON 13    NEW JERSEY 6 The Federals notch their first W thanks to their defense, and, honestly, the absence of Maurice Jones-Drew from the New Jersey lineup. The Generals got only 38 yards rushing without MJD, and with Washington sending pressure (6 sacks of Nick Foles) the New Jersey offense was simply not able to get anything done. Washington did have Anthony Allen back and with 76 yards rushing he helped the Feds do just enough to get their first win. POTG:  Federals’ FS Adrian Amos: 3 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 Blk FG   LAS VEGAS 13   SAN DIEGO 16 Another low-scoring affair as the Vipers held San Diego to only 175 total yards and 8 first downs.  But Las Vegas could only muster 252 total yards, and a paltry 31 total yards rushing.  San Diego got one big play all game, a 17-yard TD from Ponder to Marques Colston, but that was enough to give them a 16-6 lead through 3 and ½ quarters, until a late Aaron Dobson TD catch got Las Vegas within 3, but that was as close as they would get. POTG:  San Diego DE Kony Ealy: 4 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 FF   MEMPHIS 5   ORLANDO 37 A rough day for the Memphis offense as Paxton Lynch only completes 14 of 32 passing, and not much better for Memphis’s defense as Knile Davis and Rashad Jennings combined for 115 yards and a TD, while Russell Wilson threw for 2 scores and completed 17 of 20 passing. Scores from Rashad Jennings, David Njoku, and Brashad Perriman, as well as a pick-six from LB Anthony Barr helped Orlando pull away to build a 27-5 halftime lead, and Memphis never recovered. POTG:  Orlando LB Anthony Barr: 3 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 Int, 1 Def TD   JACKSONVILLE 28   TAMPA BAY 35 Winning shootouts is apparently the way forward for Tampa Bay as again the defense struggles but the passing game flies.  Ryan Grant was the star for the Bandits, catching 4 balls for 154 yards, while Dez Bryant had another 4 for 93 and a touchdown. Teddy Bridgewater kept Jacksonville in it, accounting for all 4 Bulls’ touchdowns, while Dalvin Cook was the TD man for Tampa Bay, scoring 3 times on the day as the Bandits hold on to move their record to 2-2. POTG:  Bandit DE Tank Carradine: 11 Tck, 2 FF, 1 FR   PORTLAND 3   MICHIGAN 17 The defense continues to be the story for the unbeaten Panthers as they hold Portland to a lone field goal in Kyle Lauletta’s first start for the Stags. Lauletta could not be happy with an 11 of 29 performance in which he passed for only 81 yards on the day.  Meanwhile, Michigan got 103 rushing and a TD from LeVeon Bell and added another Antonio Bryant TD catch to pull away early. POTG:  Michigan HB LeVeon Bell: 27 Att, 103 Yds, 1 TD, 3 Rec, 71 Yds   NEW ORLEANS 13   BIRMINGHAM 16   OVERTIME A huge win for the Stallions, who move to 3-1 and sit atop the Southern Division thanks to a solid defensive performance. Geno Smith completed 21 of 42 passing but only threw for 1 score, and while the Stallion offense struggled against New Orleans’s defense, they got enough to get the game to overtime and then put Chris Boswell in position for the game winner. POTG:  Birmingham CB Antonio Cromartie: 6 Tck, 1 FF, 2 PDef   SEATTLE 17   CHICAGO 37 Three Chicago backs combine for 219 rushing yard to overwhelm the Seattle defense and give Chicago a healthy time of possession advantage as well as the W.  Jeremy Hill led all backs with 115 yards and 2 TDs, but Matt Forte’s 55 yards and a 47-yard TD run by Brandon Boldin help Chicago keep pace, one game behind the Panthers at 3-1. POTG:  Chicago HB Jeremy Hill: 17 Att, 115 Yds, 2 TD   HOUSTON 17    PHILADELPHIA 13 Philadelphia came to play, but even with Colt McCoy knocked out of the game after a blow to the jaw, the Gamblers found a way.  Landry Jones hit Josh Reynolds with a back-breaking 74-yard TD throw in the 4 th  quarter to crush Philadelphia’s hope for an upset and send the Stars to a tough 0-4 start.  Matt Gutierrez survived 5 sacks and 2 picks, but could not rally the Stars late, despite 125 yards from WR Randall Cobb. POTG:  Houston SS Budda Baker: 4 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 FF, 2 FR   BALTIMORE 24    PITTSBURGH 13 Big Ben threw for 3 scores, including two to TE C. J. Uzomah, and the Blitz defense held the Mauler run game to an astonishingly bad 10 total yards as the Maulers struggled to get anything going on offense. While Roethlisberger connected only 17 of 37 throws, he hit some big ones and he helped Baltimore rack up 17 first downs to Pittsburgh’s 9.  It helped that the Blitz went 8 of 17 on third down. POTG : Baltimore QB Ben Roethlisberger: 17/37, 279 Yds, 3 TD, 1 Int   OAKLAND 10     OHIO 12 This was another defensive showdown, with the winning score coming on a safety as Glory safety Tyran Mathieu, the Honey Badger, got to Jimmy Garoppolo in the endzone for the pivotal 4 th  quarter score that helped Ohio avoid overtime.  Earlier in the game Christian Hackenberg had connected with HB Marion Mack for the Glory’s only TD.  Oakland trailed 12-3, put up a late Davante Adams TD in the final 2 minutes but could not get the onside kick to bounce their way and went home with their 2 nd  loss. POTG:  Ohio safety Tyran Mathieu: 2 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 Sfty, 1 FF   ST. LOUIS 17   LOS ANGELES 20 The Express move to 3-1 thanks to their defense and run game.  C. J. Anderson came up big with 95 yards on 16 carries while Reggie Bush contributed 63 more.  Kyler Murray also had a strong game, completing 13 of 19 attempts and connecting with both Reggie bush and Nelson Agholor to give the Express a 20-10 advantage late in the 4 th .  St. Louis added a late David Nelson TD, but it was too little as the Express defense shut them down on their final drive, preserving the win and moving LA into a tie atop the Pacific with the Thunder. POTG:  LA tailback C. J. Anderson: 16 Att, 95 Yds, 5.9 YPC   DALLAS 3   ARIZONA 38 This one was all Wranglers as Arizona put up 493 yards of offense on the Dallas D, while the Wrangler D bent (331 yards allowed) but would not break (no TDs in 4 Dallas red zone trips).  Ka’Deem Carey was the star for the Wrangler offense, rushing for 133 yards and a score on only 15 carries.  Jimmie Graham added 2 scores and 110 yards for the Wranglers, while Samaje Perine’s 89 yards rushing did not help Dallas turn yardage into points. POTG:  Wrangler HB Ka’Deem Carey: 15 Att, 144  Yds, 1 TD   CHARLOTTE 34   ATLANTA 10 Mitch Trubisky returned to action and had his best game of the year, throwing for 3 scores and suffering neither a pick nor a sack as Charlotte’s O-line dominated. Latavius Murray also benefitted, scoring his first 100-yard game as a Monarch with 125 on 23 carries.  Trubisky threw TDs to three different receivers (Proehl, Hines, and K. Smith) while Deshone Kizer had a huge drop off from last week’s game, throwing for 3 picks against the Charlotte D. POTG:  Charlotte HB Latavius Murray: 23 Att, 125 Yds   Five Breakout Players in the Season’s First Quarter Only four games into the season but there are already some players making news and getting their names out there in 2019.  We picked five players who have shown up in a big way this year, some quite surprisingly. So let’s look at who some of the new names being talked about are.   Denver QB Josh Allen While Gold fans are not overjoyed by the team’s 1-3 start, they are certainly not blaming 2 nd  year QB Josh Allen, who has been lighting things up for the Gold offense. Allen currently leads the league with a 125.6 QB rating, has over 1,000 yards in his first four games and an impressive 11 touchdowns to 3 picks.  He has also shown elusiveness in the pocket, even hurdling an Oklahoma tackler in this week’s game.  There may be some issues with Denver, particularly on defense, with Von Miller out for up to a month, but Allen has been among the biggest breakout players so far this season.   Jacksonville QB Teddy Bridgewater Another QB who is topping all expectations is Jacksonville’s “Teddy B”. Bridgewater is tied for 2 nd  in the league with 10 touchdowns, has thrown only 2 picks, is closing in on 1,000 yards and has a very nice QB rating of 102.3.  With play like this, the Bulls’ other NFL import at the position, Ryan Tannehill, is likely to have a nice long wait before he sees action. Bridgewater has Jacksonville sitting at 2 nd in the league with an average of 30.2 points per game.  Now, if the defense could be just a touch stingier, the Bulls could be on the way up in the Southeastern Division.   Tampa Bay WR Ryan Grant Second only to Houston’s Mike Evans, Grant is having himself a huge season, outpacing even NFL import Dez Bryant on Tampa Bay’s wide open offense. Grant has exactly the same number of receptions as Bryant (16), but has averaged nearly 28 yards per catch on his way to 439 yards in 4 games.  That is a blistering pace, and certainly, with Bryant right there as an option, teams simply cannot overcompensate for Ryan’s early success by shifting coverage, because Bryant will make them pay if they do.   Birmingham LB Reuben Foster Tied for 3 rd in the league with 33 tackles, Foster, the 3 rd  year linebacker out of Alabama, is proving to be yet another gem on the Tuscaloosa to Birmingham highway.  In addition to his team-leading tackle total, Foster is showing his diverse skills, blitzing on key downs (1 sack so far), dropping back on others (1 interception as well), and even has a defensive touchdown. He is a big reason why Birmingham, despite their offensive issues, is sitting at 3-1.   Charlotte FS Tre Boston Our final Breakout player is no newcomer to the league, but Charlotte safety Tre Boston is playing at a level we just have not seen before.  He leads all defenders with 5 picks in only 4 games, but he is also proving to be effective against the run, and, like Foster, he has himself his first defensive touchdown of the season as well, a pick-six in Week 3.  It is hard for safeties to stay in the spotlight in this league, but we think Boston is worth keeping an eye on, especially if you are a USFL quarterback, because he is out there waiting for you to forget.   Five Teams Whose Records Are Not What We Expected We already know that our preseason picks are often amazingly off base. Sure we get some obvious things right-- Arizona will be pretty good, LeVeon Bell will run the ball a lot, it will be sunny in July-- but every year we just don't see what is coming until it arrives. That seems to be the case again this year, as there are several teams that are already surprising us. Some we hinted could make a move, others we just did not see coming. Here are 5 surprises on the team level from the season's first month. Baltimore (3-1): First Place in the Northeast The Baltimore Blitz are a surprise frontrunner in the Northeast Division, largely thanks to a revival of their high-flying offense.  This is something many anticipated as the arrival of a true bell cow back in Josh Jacobs demands that teams respect the run, which frees up Big Ben and the deep ball for the Blitz offense.  While Jacobs’ numbers so far this year have not been eye-popping (260 yards in 4 games, an average of just 65 per game), his presence has forced defenses to alter their coverage and that has been just what Roethlisberger and the Blitz passing game needed.   It also helps that the defense, led by LBs Jarvis Jones and Brandon Jenkins, has been playing solid conceptual and team defense.  In their three victories, the Blitz have held their opponents to 12, 13, and 13 points, providing a margin of victory of 16, 10, and 13 points.  That has to make Coach Caldwell happy.  It certainly has Blitz fans feeling good, After three straight division wins, Baltimore has seen over 10,000 tickets sold for their next home game against Philadelphia in Week 6.   Birmingham (3-1): First Place in the South The Stallions are off to a fast start, sitting atop the South with Houston at 3-1, and they are doing it despite being 17 th  in scoring and 19 th  in points allowed, both the result, in large part, of their lone loss, a 27-7 home defeat at the hands of rivals Memphis.  So, how are they 3-1, with those numbers?  They are hanging close in games, bending but not breaking on defense, and finding solutions in the 4 th quarter.    In Week 1 against Philadelphia, it was a game-winning field goal with just over 2 minutes to play, followed by a solid defensive stop on Philly’s final drive.  Against Charlotte, Reuben Foster’s Pick 6 in the 4 th  gave them a 4-point lead, which turned into only a 1-point lead before Chris Boswell gave them 3 more in the final minutes and forced the Monarchs to score a touchdown or lose the game.  They lost the game.  Finally, this week, in a huge home win over the Breakers, the Stallions were taken to overtime, but found a way to get Chris Boswell into position and pulled the game out in extra time.  This is not a team that is going to blow others away, and they may still have some stinkers like the Memphis game in them, but they will largely be in every game and they seem to have figured out how to turn that into W’s.   Los Angeles (3-1): First Place in the Pacific Marvin Lewis and the Express are feeling very good about their transformation of the Express in the offseason as the 2019 version of LA’s team is looking very solid on defense (2 nd  in yards allowed, 5 th  in scoring at 15.0 PPG) and showing they can put together a run game (112 YPG, good enough for 7 th in the league).  The passing game, with rookies Kyler Murray and Hollywood Brown is still very much a work in progress, but while Murray is not exactly lighting it up (averaging 142 YPG passing), he is being smart with the ball and avoiding costly turnovers.   That combination of a run game, solid D, and lower turnovers has helped the Express rebound from an embarrassing 20-0 shutout in Oakland on opening weekend, and has them now atop the Pacific, with some very winnable games on the horizon, with 0-4 Philadelphia this week, 2-2 Dallas the week after, and then 1-3 Seattle before a rematch with the Invaders.   New Jersey (1-3): Fourth Place in the Northeast Of all the 1-3 clubs, the Generals may be the biggest surprise. They simply have not found their mojo on either side of the ball, ranked 24 th  in scoring defense, while only averaging 16.2 points per game on offense.  They have moved the ball, averaging nearly 365 yards per game, but they are failing to turn yardage into points, with only 6 this week to Washington the biggest example of that issue. Maurice Jones-Drew has yet to top 100 yards in any game, Nick Foles is completing less than 55% of his passes, and there just don’t seem to be any big plays in the General assault.    New Jersey was picked to take the division, but already find themselves 2 games behind Baltimore and sitting on an 0-2 division record. They need to figure this out quickly or they could easily be too far back to make a late run, if that is even something they are capable of.   Philadelphia (0-4): Fifth Place in the Northeast As bad as the season’s first quarter was for New Jersey, Philadelphia has them beat.  Some had the Stars competing for a Wild Card, as I seem to recall we did, but now, at 0-4, the question becomes, who can this team beat?  And how do they do it?   The Stars are averaging under 11 points per game, giving them the worst scoring offense in the league.  After 4 games, Derrick Henry is averaging barely 50 yards rushing per outing, and that is largely because no one is respecting the threat of the pass. They are focused on the run, and Matt Gutierrez is simply not making them pay for that. The Stars’ QB is the lowest rated in the league (of 3-4 game starters) with a QBR of only 56.6.  he has 8 picks already, to only 4 TDs, and he is just not hitting receivers even when they are open. If it were not for the defense, which is playing pretty solidly, keeping all 4 opponents to 20 points or fewer, the Stars would be in very desperate straits.  But how long can a defense hold up if the offense simply cannot produce? With back-to-back games against division leaders (LA in Week 5 and Baltimore in Week 6) Philadelphia could well be staring down an 0-6 start and be out of any realistic playoff hunt before we even hit Memorial Day.  That is not a good look for a team that was 13-3 only 2 years ago.     Maulers lose Thielen to ACL Injury Another week, another big injury that could impact a team’s entire season.  This week in Pittsburgh we saw Mauler star receiver Adam Thielen go down late in the game as he landed awkwardly on a jump ball, with his leg almost bending backwards.  The pressure of the jolt landing was enough to cause significant injury to Thielen’s right knee, and by Monday we learned that it had produced a complete ACL tear, an injury that would take several months to heal.  Thielen would be lost for the season.    The Mauler wideout was coming off his second consecutive 1,200-yard season, and had already racked up over 350 yards in 2019, with 4 scores to his name in the first 4 weeks of action.  The Maulers, having allowed an unhappy Victor Cruz to walk in free agency, were looking at Thielen as their undisputed number one.  With him now sidelined and placed on IR for the year, it will be NFL import Jarvis Landry who will now be thrust into that role.  With Brian Quick settled into the slot role, this means that unheralded backup Allen Lazard is now slated to start opposite Landry, and the Mauler receiver group looks very much unsettled.   McCoy Questionable After Shot to Jaw It was not a cheap shot, but the blow from Philadelphia’s Malik Jackson to the jaw of Houston QB Colt McCoy was clearly a penalty.  In an attempt to connect with McCoy before he got the ball away on a 2 nd  and 7 pass early in the 4 th  quarter, Jackson raised his arm, hoping to clip McCoy’s arm, but instead it slipped under McCoy’s facemask and the elbow cracked the QB in the jaw.  The penalty was called, but fans wanted more.  McCoy staggered back after the blow and looked a bit shaken as he was led off the field.  Landry Jones would finish the game (and provide the game-winning TD to Josh Reynolds, while McCoy went into the locker room.    The eventual verdict was a possible concussion and a pretty nasty bruise across the jaw.  No fracture was detected, so McCoy could potentially play this week, but he is listed as questionable, and Jones could well get the start for Coach Phillips.  Fans, of course, are crying foul on social media and sports talk radio, but few within the league, including network pundits, see this as anything more than a bang-bang play that simply saw Jackson’s elbow miss the mark and find its way to McCoy’s jaw.  Bad for McCoy, but not dirty play.   Outside of the injury to WR Adam Thielen for Pittsburgh and guard Chadwick Hodges of Jacksonville, this was, by all accounts, a light week on the injury list, a good shift away from the very long injury lists we have seen over the season’s first three weeks. OUT WR        Adam Thielen            PIT         ACL Tear                 IR G            Chadwick Hodges      JAX        Torn Hamstring       IR G            Andy Alleman                BAL       Torn MCL              4-6 Weeks WR        Donte Moncrief             OAK      Miniscus              1-2 Weeks DE         Anthony Hargrave        PHI        Hand                       1-2 Weeks DT          Star Lotuleilei                 DAL       Hamstring                1-2 Weeks TE          Jack Doyle                    DEN      Hernia                      1-2 Weeks DT          Kevin Vickerson            HOU     Eye                           1-2 Weeks C            Frank Ragnow               TBY       Toe                           1-2 Weeks   DOUBTFUL G            Chris Lindstrom           NJ           Back WR        Ameri Cooper                BIR        Concussion LB          Roquon Smith               STL        Hamstring DT          Andre Neblitt                  TBY       Foot   QUESTIONABLE OT          Greg Little                   OHI       Hand SS          Marqui Christian          DEN      Hip QB         Colt McCoy                     HOU     Jaw TE          Martellus Benneett     MGN    Thigh   One Month “Way Too Early” Evaluation of the USFL’s New Head Coaches Just like grading a draft the day after the players are selected is a ludicrous practice, but we all do it, rating a head coach only 1 month into their first season is equally insane, and yet, we are going to do it.  Maybe not an evaluation, so much as a check-in to see how the first four games have gone and what we see happening with each team.  From 3-1 surprises to some slow 1-3 starts, the range of first impressions has been pretty variable.  So, who is looking like they have something cooking and who needs to bake that dough a bit longer?  Here is our look at all 5 new head coaches and where they are after a month of action.   Todd Haley (BIR) With the Stallions sitting at 3-1 and having already taken a game from the Breakers, things are looking very good for Haley’s new direction in Birmingham. The offense still has some sorting out to do, ranked in the bottom half of the league in most major categories, but the defense has had some success, and the Stallions have shown some fight in them, winning some tight games and knocking off two very solid teams in the past two weeks. Birmingham will have a real test coming up with back-to-back games against the Gamblers and San Diego Thunder, but this already looks like a team that is more focused, and more capable than in past seasons.   Marvin Lewis (LA) It is still very early to determine if all the off-season moves and the young players brought in are truly the sign of a new direction for the Express, but what fans have seen so far, particularly in their 14-13 win over San Diego, has many excited about what new leadership has brought to the team.  The offense will need time to find itself, though we do think it is smart that Coach Lewis is leaning on the run, especially after the late signing of C. J. Anderson has created a bit of a Lightning & Thunder option between Anderson and Reggie Bush.  The defense is looking much better, and while rookie DE Nick Bosa has yet to record his first sack, the overall impact has been positive.   Ron Rivera (ORL) It took a couple of weeks, but we are beginning to see what the new Orlando Renegades will look like.  They will be a team that looks for chunk plays on offense and uses zone coverage and solid shells to force QBs to throw the ball into coverage.  Orlando already has 9 interceptions (tied for 1 st  with Charlotte) on the year and trails only Oakland at +9 in turnover margin.  Rivera wants to get the run game going but seems willing to let Russell Wilson lead the way on offense as the mobile QB is calling more and more run-pass options.  The Renegades sit at 2-2, so we need more time to see if they can creep up the standings or if they will linger around .500 for most of the year.   Bob Stoops (OKL) After an 0-3 start, the Outlaws got their first win this week, but as we look at their 4 games, this is not a team that has been out of any game.  They held close to Arizona in the opener, losing by 3 in a hard-fought game.  They again lost by 3 in Dallas, taking the Roughnecks to overtime.  Jacksonville had their number in Week 3, winning by 15, but they had a nice bounce-back win at home this week against Denver.  They have some winnable games on the schedule, with the next game against a team currently over .500 not coming until a Week 14 rematch with Arizona. Can they make a push to get back into the hunt in Stoops’s first year?   Mark Trestman (TBY) A 2-2 start is not half bad for the Bandits, and “not half-bad” feels very much like the perfect way to describe what we have seen from Trestman’s Bandits this year.  The half that is pretty darned good is the offense, averaging 34 points and 414 yards of offense per game.  The defense, well that is the half-bad part for sure, giving up 33.2 points and 393 yards per game. So, what we are saying is that the Bandits are going to have to win a lot of shootouts if they want to stay at or above .500, either that or Mark Trestman is going to have to find some answers on defense.     Week 4 Power Ratings Here we go, our first power ratings of the season, rankng all 28 clubs from the best of the best to the bottom of the barrel. No real shockers at the top and bottom, with unbeaten Arizona and Michigan on one end and winless Philadelphia on the other, but it is in the middle where the debates can be held. Is there a poser among the 3-1 squads, a 1-3 club that is just waiting to go on a run, a 2-2 team that should be much higher or much lower? We leave those questions to you. For us, this is how we see them, from 1 to 28: 1—Arizona (4-0) The Wranglers may have almost completely retooled their roster over the past two seasons, but they are still looking very much like a dynasty in the Southwest.   2— Michigan (4-0) That defense, paired with a reliable run game, has the Panthers looking to return to the top of the Central, and possibly back to a Summer Bowl.   3—Houston (3-1) The Gamblers got caught in a trap game up in Portland, but aside from that hiccup it has been everything we expect of the defending champs.   4—San Diego (3-1) The defense is getting the job done, the offense has the capacity to be special as well.  After 4 weeks they fall only 2 points short of being unbeaten.   5—Balti more (3-1) The Jacobs Effect has been all the Blitz had hoped for, forcing defenses to respect the run, which has made the vertical game that much more potent.   6—Chicago (3-1) With back-to-back 30+ point games, it seems Coach Smith has found his offense, a blend of Sam Bradford and a 2-back system that is producing nearly 120 yards per game.   7—Birmingham (3-1) It may seem like Birmingham is doing it with smoke and mirrors, but another way to look at it is that Coach Haley has this team believing they should win every game, so they find a way to do it.   8—Charlotte (3-1) Fans may be worried about Trubisky’s picks, but so much else is working well for Charlotte, that it seems they can absorb those hits.  The defense, in particular, is looking as good as it has in recent memory.   9—Los Angeles (3-1) A great start for Coach Lewis, even without the passing game really clicking yet.  The defensive success early on may be the key to this team being able to develop Kyler Murray and the passing game over time.   10—Oakland (2-2) The Invader D, allowing only 12.8 PPG, is legit, but Oakland needs more out of the offense if they want to keep pace in a division that could be more balanced than people initially thought.   11—Memphis (2-2) A 2-0 start has morphed into a 2-2 record as Memphis has scored 12 and 5 in back-to-back games.  We know that Rex Ryan is a defensive guy, but some attention may be needed if this offense is going to be more than a drag on the Showboats going forward.   12—New Orleans (2-2) Geno Smith has been up and down, and so has the entire Breakers’ offense. The D is still there, but winning 12-6 and losing 13-16 is not what anyone wants to see from this club.   13—Ohio (2-2) The Glory have won 2 games scoring 15 and 12 points.  That does not feel sustainable.  They need to get Christian Hackenberg on track, open up the offense a bit, and prove they can beat a team that has offensive weapons.   14—Pittsburgh (2-2) A .500 record after 4 weeks is not too bad for a Mauler team that many had bringing up the rear in the Northeast.  They simply exploded against Jacksonville, scoring 44, but that seems the exception.  More from the run game will be needed, especially now, with Adam Thielen on the shelf.   15—Orlando (2-2) The last 2 weeks have been a nice rebound from an 0-2 start.  Las Vegas and Memphis are quality wins.  Now, let’s see how they do as they enter a 5-game divisional stretch. This next quarter could well determine their entire season.   16—Tampa Bay (2-2) The offense is there.  1 st  in the league in scoring, yards per game, and passing.  That is giving them hope, but a defense allowing 33.2 points per game is absolutely not what any winning team wants.  If the Bandits want to get and stay over .500, they need to address that and quickly.   17—Jacksonville (2-2) Our third consecutive SE Division team in the middle of the pack.  That is better than what most people saw for these three Florida squads. For Jacksonville it has been their offense, led by Teddy Bridgewater and a lot of no-name contributors that has helped them prove competitive each week.   18—Dallas (2-2) The Roughnecks started hot, knocking off Denver and Oklahoma, but when the competition stiffened with back-to-back games against unbeatens (Michigan and Arizona) we saw that they have not yet arrived.  They may be better than this ranking, but will need to string some wins together to rise.   19—New Jersey (1-3) The run game has not found its groove yet, the defense has been a shadow of what we all expected, and Nick Foles is just not good enough to carry the entire team.  So, a 1-3 record, while surprising based on what we thought this team would be, is not a surprise when we look at what they have actually been.   20—Denver (1-3) If Coach Hufnagel can get the defense to stiffen up a bit, Denver could be dangerous. They are giving up far too many yards and too many scoring opportunities.  As much as we have loved the start to Josh Allen’s career, he needs more from the rest of the team.   21—Las Vegas (1-3) McGloin is over 1,000 yards already, but when your lead rusher is averaging only 40 yards per game, you have some issues.  Add to that a defense that is giving up over 320 yards per game, and you can see how Las Vegas has not been able to pull out a lot of games. They are close to being a good team, but close is not close enough.   22—Oklahoma (1-3) They finally got their first win in 4 tries, but it was a close call even then.  While Marshawn Lynch has been really good so far this year, Joe Flacco has not produced the way Oklahoma counted on, and, well, the defense is looking a bit slow and a bit old, giving up over 25 points per game.   23—Washington (1-3) So is it that Ryan Nassib was overrated because he was playing with Arizona’s talent last year, and now he is crashing to earth, or is it that the Federals are just not maximizing his abilities with appropriate play calling?  All we know is that the numbers so far are nowhere near what he was doing in the desert.   24—Atlanta (1-3) The Fire thought they had caught lightning in a bottle when Deshone Kizer put up 4 scores in his debut, but he crashed back to Earth this week against Charlotte.  Fire fans better hope that it was this week where we saw the anomaly and not in Week 3, because Kizer is your man for this season and there are a lot of games left to play.   25—Portland (1-3) Similar to what we see with Kizer, Kyle Lauletta is going to have to show he can play at a high level for the rest of the year.  He looked good in his first action, coming on in relief, but in his first start the offense sputtered and Porland managed only 3 points.  That was against Michigan, in Detroit, so maybe not a fair assessment.  This week in Oklahoma, Lauletta has to show more.   26—Seattle (1-3) Fans in Seattle are beginning to question whether the Dragons let the wrong QB leave this offseason.  Jacoby Brissett is struggling, as is the entire offense. Even in their 1 win, a rain-soaked opener, they only scored 10 points.  They have yet to cross 17 all year.   27—St. Louis (1-3) The Skyhawks opened strong, traveling to Baltimore and knocking off the Blitz 29-27, but they have now lost three in a row, have not scored more than 17 in any of those games, and struggled, as most expected, to stop the run.   28—Philadelphia (0-4) Where is Derrick Henry?  Has he not really recovered from his 2018 injury?  Or is it that the Stars just don’t have what they need to keep defenders off of their star back?  Henry is averaging barely 50 yards per game, and, as we have outlined, the issue may really be that no DC is worried about the Star passing game.   Easter Weekend brings us a modified schedule as the USFL experiments with going heavy on Saturday and cutting out all noon games on Sunday.  I guess that means more egg hunts and ham for everyone, but it also means that we are looking at 6 games available only in regional coverage rather than national broadcasts.   No changes on Friday, where we still have our double header, starting with the Feds and Maulers, each hoping to get into the mix in the division.  The late game is from Oakland where the Invaders take on the unbeaten Michigan Panthers. This will be a defensive slog that may see very low scoring from both clubs.   Saturday is jam-packed, with three games in both the Noon timeslot and at 4pm.  We start the early games with three divisional matchups as the Bandits head to Charlotte, Orlando is in Jacksonville, and Baltimore travels to New Jersey, where the Generals hope a win can get them back in the mix. At 4pm we have 3 more games, with Chicago visiting Ohio in a key Central Division showdown, Denver in Dallas, and regional coverage of Atlanta at Birmingham.  The Saturday night two-fer should be a good one Houston at New Orleans early and Philadelphia hoping against hope for a turnaround against a 3-1 LA Express club.   Sunday will be light, with the first games starting at 4pm to allow for holiday celebrations.  The national game on FOX will see Arizona in division as they head to Las Vegas to face the Vipers.  In regional action we have San Diego in St. Louis and Portland facing the Outlaws in OK City.  We finish up the week with an 8pm kickoff from Memphis, where the Seattle Dragons make a rare trip to the Mid-South to face the Showboats.   Friday @ 7pm ET              Washington (1-3) @ Pittsburgh (2-2)                NBC Friday @ 9:30pm ET       Michigan (4-0) @ Oakland (2-2)                     ABC   Saturday @ 12pm ET    Tampa Bay (2-2) @ Charlotte (3-1)            ABC Regional Saturday @ 12pm ET     Orlando (2-2) @ Jacksonville (2-2)          ABC Regional Saturday @ 12pm ET      Baltimore (3-1) @ New Jersey (1-3)                 FOX Saturday @ 4pm ET       Dallas (2-2) @ Denver (1-3)                           ABC Saturday @ 4pm ET        Atlanta (1-3) @ Birmingham (3-1)                    FOX Regional Saturday @ 4pm ET     Chicago (3-1) @ Ohio (2-2)                      FOX Regional Saturday @ 7pm ET          Houston (3-1) @ New Orleans (2-2)              NBC Saturday @ 9pm ET     Philadelphia (0-4) @ Los Angeles (3-1)     ESPN/EFN   Sunday @ 4pm ET       San Diego (3-1) @ St. Louis (1-3)                    ABC Regional Sunday @ 4pm ET           Portland (1-3) @ Oklahoma (1-3)                    ABC Regional Sunday @ 4pm ET          Arizona (4-0) @ Las Vegas (1-3)                   FOX Sunday @ 8pm ET        Seattle (1-3) @ Memphis (2-2)                        ESPN/EFN

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Michigan's LeVeon Bell does it again, not quite the 215-yard outing he had in Week 2, but no one is going to complain aobut 174 combined yards, with 71 in teh air and 103 on the ground. Bell is a big reason why the Panthers reach the 1/4 mark unbeaten.

A big week for the USFL as the league reveals the second 2020 expansion team, a return to a familiar setting, while also announcing the 2019 Hall of Fame semi-finalists. It was also a big week on the field as the number of unbeatens drops to 2. Charlotte, Houston, Memphis, and San Diego all fell from the ranks of the unbeaten, leaving only Arizona and Michigan unblemished. We also a pair of 0-2 teams notch their first wins as both Portland and Orlando got upset wins to move to 1-2. It was a week that saw backup QB Deshone Kizer rip the Tampa Bay Bandit defense apart, Darrius Heyward-Bey propel Baltimore into first place, Calais Campbell notch another 3-sack game, and several pick-sixes impact games. We start with the expansion news, but we will cover all the Week 3 action, and take along at the 10 men in the hunt for 5 Hall of Fame positions.   Boston is Back as New England Steamrollers Announced as USFL’s 30th Team “Go You Rollahs!” is the catchphrase already being sold on t-shirts as fans of USFL football in the Boston area, and throughout New England celebrate the announcement that the 30 th  franchise to join the spring football league will be housed at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, the third USFL team to call the Boston area home, and the first to play in an NFL stadium.   The announcement came this Monday at a pomp-filled ceremony at Boston’s famed Hynes Convention Center. A who’s who of Beantown legends were there, from the current Governor, Charlie Baker, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to local football legends Doug Flutie, Steve Grogan, and Tiki Barber, pro basketball star Larry Bird, Red Sox fan favorite David Ortiz, and local celebrities Mark Wahlberg, and even Captain America himself, Chris Evans. But no one was more celebrated than new team owners Robert Hale Jr. and Bill Alfond, who will serve as CEO of the newest USFL club.  The new owners, surrounded by the dignitaries and Boston celebrities made the announcement that their expansion bid was named the winning bid and that, beginning in March of 2020, USFL football would be played at Gillette Stadium. The announcement included the reveal of the team’s inaugural uniforms (on mannikins only, as no players have yet signed to play for the new club) and the grassroots slogan of “Go you Rollahs” (spelled as Bostonians would say it, of course), a slogan which came from a fan group and has been adopted by the club. The two co-owners and founders of the New England Football Group declared that they hoped that the Steamrollers would be a team that the entire region would be proud of, a statement some interpreted as a dig against the NFL Patriots who have struggled for relevance in the local sports market, or at Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, currently embroiled in a sex scandal involving a Florida massage parlor. But, for most the reference was an invitation for Mainers, Vermonters, New Hampshirites, Rhode Islanders and Nutmeggers (as apparently folks from Connecticut are called, who knew?) to join the Roller Nation and come out to games next spring.   The team will now begin the tough tasks of setting up a new franchise, from picking a team office, staffing and hires up and down the organization, scouting for both the 2020 USFL Draft and the expansion draft that will largely stock both the Steamrollers and the San Antonio Gunslingers. It has been confirmed that New England will be joining the Northeastern Division, displacing Pittsburgh, who will return to the Central Division and their rivalry with the Ohio Glory. So, New Englanders can anticipate visits from New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington among their 8 home games in 2020. The schedule, of course, will not be revealed until the fall, the roster not defined until February, but the fans don’t need to wait. The team hopes to have merchandise ready as soon as next month, and season tickets will go on sale in September. The Steamrollers' primary uniforms will combine orange and grey, with black trim.  For Indianapolis and the Twin Ciites, as it was for the other 4 bid groups that did not get this far, it is a bitter day, filled with disappointment that their city would not get a chance to host year-round football. Owners from the two groups released statements of congratulations to the NEFG investors, and words of thanks to their communities for supporting their bids, but it was known from the beginning that only 1 city and 1 bidding group would get the 30 th USFL club, and in the end the size, population, economic strength, and stadium option for the New England Steamrollers was simply viewed by the 28 league owners as the optimal path forwards. And so, for the third time in league history, following the 1983-1985 Breakers and 2002-2012 Cannons, the city of Boston and the region of New England will be part of the USFL family. New England also revealed a black pant set and an alternate set, an all white design with almost no orange, called the "Noreaster". ATLANTA FIRE 47  TAMPA BAY BANDITS 41  OVERTIME This was not the way Bandit fans saw their week 3 matchup with the winless Atlanta Fire going. Atlanta was limping in, having come up short against both Jacksonville and Las Vegas, and forced into starting untested Deshone Kizer at QB after Aaron Murray’s Week 2 arm fracture. This was going to be Tampa’s shot at starting the year 2-1, and maybe, just maybe, a kick start to a season defined not by their shaky defense but by their explosive offense.   Well, the Tampa Bay offense was certainly explosive, with a 105-yard kickoff return by rookie Deebo Samuel, TD runs from Dalvin Cook and David Wilson, and TD catches from Dez Bryant and Jordan Cameron, but it was also a game that saw Dak Prescott exit early, replaced by B. J. Daniels, and a game that saw the suspect Bandit defense look a lot worse than suspect. Despite getting 5 sacks of Kizer, the Bandit defense just could not contain the 2 nd  year QB. Kizer would complete 32 of 52 passing, rack up 328 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Bandits. He got help, of course, with Roy Williams catching 5 for 110 and 2 scores, Kelvin Benjamin adding 8 receptions, 69 yards and a score, and TE O. J. Howard adding a TD as well.   In a game that ended up tied at 41 in regulation, both teams had their moments. There were 3 unusual scores in the game, with Samuel’s long kickoff return, but also two pick-sixes for the Fire, with both Darius Slay and Earl Thomas returning poor throws for scores, both truly poor decisions by Dak Prescott. We also saw some consistent offense from both teams, with the two combining for over 800 yards of offense and 35 first downs. The Bandits did a bit more on the ground, with Cook rushing for 98 yards on 20 carries, but Atlanta also got some good play out of Nick Chubb and Kenyan Drake, combining for 76 yards. But it was the passing game of Atlanta, something few expected to be a major factor, that got them their first win.   The two teams traded scores for most of the game, With Tampa Bay building up a 17-10 halftime lead, but Atlanta responded in the 3 rd  with Roy Williams evening the score with a 34-yard catch and run. That play was followed almost immediately by Dak Prescott’s first of two picks, a late throw over the middle that allowed CB Darius Slay to step in front of the ball and then return it 35 yards for an Atlanta lead. On the very next possession Earl Thomas tipped, caught, and ran back another Prescott throw for a 66-yard pick-six and suddenly Atlanta was up 14, a 21-point turnaround.   The Bandits fought back, helped by the Samuel kickoff return, and when Harrison Butker hit on a 51-yard kick to tie the game at 41, it looked like anyone’s game to win. But, that was not the case. Atlanta won the toss, ground out 2 first downs, and then found the coverage they wanted. Kizer rolled out on a 2 nd and 3, and there was Roy Williams a yard past the coverage and racing down the sideline. Kizer hit his receiver in stride and Williams cruised in for the game winner. A huge sigh of relief for Coach Arians and the Fire, a huge letdown for the Bandits and their fans at Raymond James, as they now find themselves sitting at 1-2 and tied with both Atlanta and Orlando, all three a game back of the Monarchs and Bulls.   NEW JERSEY 30  OHIO 27  OVERTIME It took overtime but the New Jersey Generals notch their first win by knocking off the Ohio Glory in Columbus. Nick Foles threw for 2 scores and moved the Generals into range for Ka’imi Fairbairn to give the Generals the much-needed win. Ohio got 101 on the ground from Isaiah Pead, but the defense could not hold New Jersey down at the end of regulation, giving up a game-tying touchdown and then a game-winning drive in overtime. POTG:  New Jersey safety Quinton Carter: 1 Tck, 1 Int ,1 Def TD   LAS VEGAS 10   ORLANDO 24 Orlando gives up 318 yards passing to Matt McGloin but also picks off the Viper QB twice on their way to a solid 14-point victory. The Renegades got TDs on a Russell Wilson 32-yard scramble and TD runs from both Rashad Jennings and Knile Davis as they racked up 128 yards on the ground while the D held Las Vegas to only 3 points over the game’s final 3 quarters. POTG:  Renegade DE Arthur Moats: 4 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 FF, 1 FR   BIRMINGHAM 27  CHARLOTTE 23 Cam Newton had one of those Cam Newton games that frustrate defensive coordinators so, throwing for 236 and rushing for 90 as Birmingham edged Charlotte to move to 2-1. Newton scored on the ground as well, while Birmingham also got a TD from HB Kerryon Johnson and a pick-six from LB Reuben Foster to knock off the homestanding Monarchs, who started Tyler Thigpen for the injured Mitch Trubisky. POTG:  Stallion LB Reuben Foster: 7 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 Int, 1Def TD   BALTIMORE 23  WASHINGTON 13 The Blitz get 13 points in the 4 th  quarter to take over the rivalry match between them and the Federals. Darius Heyward-Bey scored his 2 nd TD on the day to kick off the Baltimore run, finishing the game with 121 yards and 2 scores. Without Anthony Allen the Washington offense struggled, rushing for only 27 total yards and forcing Ryan Nassib into far too many third and long situations. POTG:  Blitz WR Darius Heyward-Bey: 6 Rec, 121 Yds, 2 TD   ST. LOUIS 14   CHICAGO 34 The Machine picked off Lamar Jackson 4 times, producing 21 points off turnovers, more than enough to down the Skyhawks. Forte & Hill combined for 98 yards rushing and Sam Bradford returned to action and threw 2 touchdowns for Chicago, while St. Louis kept shooting themselves in the foot, with those 4 picks, but also 12 penalties for 120 yards. POTG:  Chiago SS Lano Hill: 1 Tck, 3 PDef, 2 Int   JACKSONVILLE 25  OKLAHOMA 10 Another solid game from the Bulls as the defense holds the Outlaws to only 3 points until the final 2 minutes of action. David Akers was kept busy, putting up 6 field goals, which, paired with a Dominique Rogers-Cromartie pick-six were all the points the Bulls needed. POTG:  Bulls’ kicker David Akers: 6 for 6 on Field Goals.   MEMPHIS 12   PITTSBURGH 23 The Maulers move to 2-1 by knocking off the previously unbeaten Showboats. They too got a pick-six, this one coming from Rasul Douglas with only 2:13 in the game to lock it away for the homestanding Maulers. Lynch, who was also sacked 4 times and completed only 23 of 49 throws, struggled against an aggressive Mauler pass rush. POTG:  Mauler CB Rasul Douglas: 8 Tck, 4 PDef, 1 Int, 1 Def TD   DENVER 20   ARIZONA 27 The Gold put up a good fight, outgaining Arizona 370-306, but a late TD from Carr to Cruz was enough for the Wranglers to stay unbeaten. Carr had 3 TDs on the day, including 2 to Cruz, while Josh Allen threw for 306 with a TD, but also was sacked 3 times by Calais Campbell, one producing a fumble deep in Denver territory. Neither team could get much on the ground, with the leading rusher being DeMarco Murray with only 51 yards on 14 attempts. POTG: Arizona DE Calais Campbell; 6 Tck, 3 Sck, 1 FF, 1 FR   NEW ORLEANS 12  PHILADELPHIA 6 A defensive slugfest between the Breakers and Stars, with both teams held under 250 total yards. The difference was Caleb Sturgis, hitting on two long field goals to give New Orleans the win in a game that saw no touchdowns. Surprisingly, with the score this low, there were no turnovers and only 7 total penalties. POTG:  New Orleans LB Tim Williams: 9 Tck, 2 TFL, 1 PDef   OAKLAND 20  SEATTLE 6 A rough day for Jacoby Brissett as the Invader D keyed on him, recording 2 picks and 7 sacks. Jimmy Garoppolo fared better, throwing for 198 yards and a TD. The Seattle defense focused on Christian McCaffrey, holding the Invader back to only 22 yards rushing and 3 receptions, but the Dragons simply could not do anything on offense, with Knowshon Moreno averaging only 1.3 yards per carry. POTG:  Oakland LB Shaq Barrett: 6 Tck, 3 Sck, 1 FF   MICHIGAN 20  DALLAS 3 Dallas may have outgained Michigan (314-301), but this game was another dominant performance from the Michigan defense, holding the unbeaten Roughnecks out of scoring position for nearly the entire game. Kirk Cousins found Antonio Bryant, the former Wrangler, for both Panther touchdowns, and the defense did the rest as Michigan remains unbeaten at 3-0. POTG:  Michigan QB Kirk Cousins: 19/26, 201 Yds, 2 TD, 0 Int   HOUSTON 28   PORTLAND 31 A huge shocker as Marcus Mariota went out early in the 2 nd  with Portland down 14-7, only for backup Kyle Lauletta to lead Portland to victory with a TD pass to Jordan Shipley with only 20 seconds left to play. Colt McCoy threw for 378 and 3 scores, but the numbers were hollow after the Stags got the W in the final seconds. It was the run game that kept Portland in it, with both Doug Martin (100) and Ben Tate (107) each going over the century mark in the game. POTG:  Portland HB Ben Tate: 12 Att, 107 Yds, 1 TD   SAN DIEGO 13   LOS ANGELES 14 The Express were home underdogs against San Diego but come up big as Kyler Murray throws TDs to both Demaryius Thomas and Nelson Agholor to shock the Thunder. The LA defense did their job as well, limiting the Thunder to only 7 first downs and 219 total yards in the game. Reggie Bush was LA’s primary weapon, rushing for 130 yards and averaging 6.8 YPC to help power LA to a 2-1 record. POTG:  Express HB Reggie Bush: 19 Att, 130 Yds   Mariota Lost for 8-12 Weeks, but Lauletta Gets Big Upset Win It was exactly the kind of injury that you just know is bad as soon as it happens. Marcus Mariota was rolling to his right, never saw the linebacker coming in, and took a shot right on his left knee. He would not get up, not on his own. The leg had bent inwards in a way that everyone could tell was a sign of ligament damage, and, sure enough, by Monday it had been revealed that the Portland QB had suffered a PCL tear. Not quite as devastating as the ACL, but the kind of injury that would rule out Mariota for the rest of the season.   So, in came Kyle Lauletta, the Richmond Spider drafted in 2018 by the Stags before Mariota had a very solid season. Brought in to challenge Mariota, Lauletta now looks to be his replacement for 2019. And while no one expects that the inexperienced QB can replicate what we saw from backups Ryan Nassib and Matt McGloin last season, what we saw in his first game action was pretty darn good. Lauletta came in with Portland trailing the defending league champions 21-14. He would lead them to a 31-28 victory, connecting with Jordan Shipley at the end of a frantic 2-minute drill that produced the game winner with only 20 ticks left on the clock. Not a bad start at all.   So, Lauletta, who appeared in 4 games in his rookie season, throwing for 765 yards, 6 TDs and 6 picks, will almost certainly inherit the starting job for the Stags as a sophomore. He will be backed up by Kellen Clemons and the just-signed veteran of both Ohio and Philly, Tony Pike. Mariota, after putting up his best season in 2018, will now miss his 5 th  USFL season after playing in only 2 and a half games and throwing for 447 yards.   Shaq for the Sack as Oakland Rolls We said before the season that the signing of Shaq Barrett from the NFL could be a coup for the Oakland Invaders, especially because he would be lined up right next to 2018 Defensive Player of the Year Bobby Wagner. Three games into 2019, that seems to be a pretty good prediction. Barrett was all over the place this week as Oakland turned away the Seattle Dragons 20-6. The former NFL backer, who is currently 3 rd  on the Invaders with 18 tackles, had 6 in the Seattle, game, but also added 3 sacks, his first of the season for Oakland, and added a forced fumble as well.   Barrett, Wagner and the Oakland D currently sits in second for scoring, allowing only 6 points to the Dragons after having shut out the LA Express in Week 1. They had issues in Week 2 against the Breakers, losing 33 -27, but bounced back well with a solid defensive game plan for the Dragons. This week they travel to Ohio, where Christian Hackenberg will have to worry about both Wagner and Barrett, a dynamic duo for the Invaders.   Campbell Right Back Where He Belongs When we say Campbell is back where he belongs, we don’t mean Glendale, Arizona, we mean atop the league’s Sack Leaderboard. With a second straight 3-sack performance, the undisputed King of the Hill is once again sitting at the peak of the game. He benefits from a strong defensive team around him, led by LB A. J. Klien and CB Joe Haden, but it is clear that the big man is fully capable of being a one-man demolition team all on his own. While Denver did what they could to protect 2 nd  year QB Josh Allen, and the big QB had a few quality escapes, using his legs to get out of a crumbling pocket, Campbell still found him three times, helping Arizona hold off the plucky Gold squad to take the home win 27-20. Campbell is smiling on the sideline, chumming around with fellow defenders, and still very much keeping offensive coordinators from getting much sleep. Next up for Campbell, a home game against another division foe as Dallas comes to town this week. All apologies to Josh Freeman, who is likely not loving that prospect.   Gutierrez Strugging as Stars Lose Third All is not rosey in the City of Brotherly Love. The Stars are sitting at 0-3 after dropping a rough 12-6 game to New Orleans, a game that saw neither team able to cross into the endzone, with all 18 points coming off of a kicker’s foot. With that loss, Philadelphia has scored only 30 points in 3 games, a pretty easy average to figure out of only 10 points per game. They currently rank dead last in scoring and yards, with the 24 th  best passing attack and 26 th in rushing, despite having a healthy Dereck Thomas. There is lots of blame to go around, from poor line play to predictable play calling, but the man taking the most heat is QB Matt Gutierrez. The 13-year vet, who became the Stars’ starter way back in 2012, has had up years and down years, but so far in 2019, it is looking like a truly poor start. After 3 games, Gutierrez has twice as many picks than touchdowns (6 to 3), has completed only 51.5% of his passes, and sits dead last among QBs with at least 50 attempts, with a QB rating of 50.9. That is the kind of start that would get a less-established QB happy feet and a coach a quick hook. And while Coach Harbaugh still expresses confidence in his QB, the reality may be that he does not see another good option. Philadelphia’s two backups are 3 rd  year backup P. J. Walker, who has thrown a grand total of 36 passes in his USFL career (nearly all in an end of season mop-up game last June) and rookie Trace McSorley, a Penn State product that has only taken a few snaps late in a preseason game.   So, for now, Harbaugh sticks with Gutierrez, but after dropping from 13-3 in 2017 to a surprising 7-9 last year, how long can the Coach stick with his man? What if, as many calling in to local sports radio were saying, Gutierrez has hit the dreaded QB cliff, that point where their bodies simply stop providing the QB with the tools, reflexes, and instinctual movements that make them successful?   Another long injury report this week, including several players placed on IR. That group includes Mariota, but also Breaker DT Justin Ellis and Orlando wideout Jeremy Maclin. Several other significant injuries will impact their teams, including the loss of Von Miller from the Gold for potentially a month or longer. St. Louis loses its young LB Roquon Smith to a hamstring, but perhaps for only a week or two. Among the Doubtfuls and Questionables we have two huge targets for Charlotte QB Mitch Trubisky, with both Blackmon and Pettigrew potentially out this week. New Jersey looks to be without two key players as well, with both MJD and CB Devin McCourty likely to miss action this week.   OUT DT       Justin Ellis                    NOR      PCL                  IR QB         Marcus Mariota               POR      PCL                   IR WR         Jeremy Maclin                 ORL       Back                 IR DE          Shane Ray                      STL         Foot                 8-12 Weeks SS           Will Harris                       NOR      MCL                 8-12 Weeks CB          Trumaine McBride         TBY        Back                 4-6 Weeks DE          Von Miller                      DEN      Ankle                2-4 Weeks OT          Jamarco Jones               LV           Jaw                   1-2 Weeks LB           Roquon Smith                 STL         Hamstring        1-2 Weeks TE           Gavin Escobar                 JAX         Collarbone      1-2 Weeks FS           Ha Ha Clinton-Dix          PHI        Ribs                1-2 Weeks   DOUBTFUL CB          Jaquan Johnson           MEM     Hand                    OT          Greg Little                     OHI       Finger CB          Devin McCourty              NJ           Miniscus WR         Cody Latimer                MGN     Eye CB          Dee Milliner                   ORL       Concussion HB         Maurice Jones-Drew     NJ           Neck   QUESTIONABLE WR         Brian Hartline                  BAL        Hand WR         Justin Blackmon             CHA      Hamstring TE           Brandon Pettigrew         CHA      Concussion OT          Marcus Gilbert                NOR      Ankle DE          Anthony Hargrove          PHI        Shoulder OG         Jahri Evans                     MEM     Knee   Hall of Fame Semifinalists Revealed As has become something of an early April tradition, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and the USFL have announced the slate of semi-finalists for this October’s Class of 2019, ten former USFL players or coaches to be considered for the five available slots for induction. The 2019 group contains 7 new nominees in their first year of eligibility, players who retired from the game after the 2014 season, the largest contingent of first-year nominees in the past 5 years. It is a group that contains several legitimate “first ballot” nominees, and we know that with 5 spots on the line, no fewer than 2 first year nominees will make the roster of 2019 enshrinees, though it could certainly be more. Here, without further ado, is the USFL Hall of Fame semifinalist list for the Class of 2019.   QB Jake Plummer (ARZ 97-08, LV 09-14) Plummer has to be considered the surest bet to be a first ballot nominee. The former Wrangler and Las Vegas Thunder quarterback was a 10-time All-USFL player, threw for nearly 60,000 yards (59,759 to be exact), with a stunning 470 touchdowns (65 rushing touchdowns) and a lifetime QB Rating of 92.6. Plummer was a dual-threat QB in a time when those were far more rare than today, rushing for over 3,500 yards in his career, including some absolutely stunning long TD runs. He never won a title, but seems absolutely destined to garner this honor and it’s famous gold jacket.  QB Duante Culpepper (TBY 04-14) A second QB in the group, and one who was able to put a ring on his finger as the leader of the Bandit offense that helped Tampa Bay earn a league title in 2011. Culpepper was the playoff and Summer Bowl MVP that season. A 4-time All-USFL awardee, Culpepper played his entire USFL career with the Bandits, throwing for 36,966 yards, 259 TDs to 124 picks, and retired with a 93.1 QB rating. The former Bandit may have a hard time cracking the Hall in his first year primarily because of the sentiment behind Jake Plummer’s nomination.   DE Anthony Weaver (CHI 02-14) An 8-time All-USFL player and one of the most well-rounded defensive ends of his day, Weaver was Chicago’s “Sackmaster” for over a decade, racking up 199 career sacks, but he was also a very solid D-lineman against the run, with over 530 tackles in his career, including 84 tackles for loss. He retired in 2014 having recorded 7 safeties in his career, along with 26 forced fumbles. Weaver did not win a title with the up-and-down Machine squads of the 2000’s but still holds the Machine record for sacks in a career and in a season.  LB Mike Vrabel (POR 97-99, JAX 00-14) A consummate tackler, renown for his form and discipline, Mike Vrabel was an 11-time All-USFL player and last season joined Jacksonville’s Ring of Fame. He never won a title playing for the hard luck Bulls, but his numbers are undeniably outstanding: 1,882 career tackles, including 153 behind the line of scrimmage, 49 sacks, 10 interceptions, 72 forced fumbles and 23 fumble recoveries. Vrabel seems very much prepped to be a first ballot nominee as well. LB James Farrior (BAL 02-09, HOU 10-14) A 7-time All-USFL player at linebacker, Farrior’s numbers are solid as well, but it is his leadership and the quality of the Houston defenses that he captained that likely will get him into the Hall. Not that his numbers are bad: 1,359 career tackles, including 184 for a loss, 62 sacks and 9 forced fumbles. But, fans of the game view Farrior as a thinking-man’s MLB, guiding both the Baltimore and the Houston defense and helping the Gamblers stay in the hunt nearly every year, winning a championship ring in 2010 with Houston.  CB Quentin Jammer (TEX 02-03, PHI 04-13, BIR 14) One of the premier “shut down” corners of this generation, “Jammer” was a perfect name for the way Quentin played the game. He could take on receivers on the line, or block them out down the field. In his 13 USFL seasons, Jammer accumulated 32 picks, but it is his 343 Passes defended, a huge number, along with 1,040 tackles and 24 forced fumbles that stand out most. Jammer retired after a lone season in Birmingham, having played 10 years in Philadelphia and 2 in Texas, as a 5-time All-USFL nominee.  FS Ed Reed (WSH 02-14) The man you did not want to meet over the middle of the field, Ed Reed was known for his knock-down hits, as well as his savvy positioning in the defensive backfield. One of the premier safeties in USFL history, Ed Reed was only a 4-time All-USFL nominee, which stunned us when we discovered that. In 13 seasons in Washington, he was a force over the middle, racking up 562 tackles, 27 sacks, and 35 interceptions, but numbers do not tell the whole story. We often look at the MLB position as the QB of the defense, but when Ed Reed was on the field it was like having a QB and a Defensive Coordinator in the defensive huddle.  HB Willis McGahee (TBY 03-13) The first of the three returning nominees in this year’s semifinalist cohort, McGahee played 9 seasons with the Tampa Bay Bandits, helping them achieve a league title in 2011, and winning the Offensive Player of the Year in 2012. Despite only being nominated to 1 All-USFL team, McGahee has very strong career numbers with 12,138 yards rushing, 97 career touchdowns and nearly 2,000 yards as a receiver.   WR Peerless Price (DEN 99-13) Perhaps the best in a long line of Denver Gold “Possession” receivers (Golden Tate being the latest), Peerless Price was a bit more of a speed guy early in his Gold career, but worked on his craft over 14 seasons, becoming a deadly route runner in his later years. He retired in 2013 with over 1,200 receptions, 14,495 yards, and 80 career touchdowns. He was nominated as an All-USFL receiver three times.  HB Antowain Smith (LA 97-02, JAX 03-09, STL 10-12) A sentimental choice in his 3 rd  year of eligibility, especially for fans in St. Louis, Smith racked up 15,925 rushing yards in his 16 years on the field, an eternity for a back. He contributed 126 career touchdowns to his three teams, and saved the best for last, winning a title with the Skyhawks in his final season in 2012.   Five of these nominees will join the Legacy Committee’s nominee for a pre-2010 retiree as the six new members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame this October. If we had to lay odds, our bullpen believes that Plummer and Vrabel are practically locks, followed by Ed Reed, James Farrior and then it gets a bit murkier. Would the voters give all 5 spots to first-year candidates by selecting Daunte Culpepper or Anthony Weaver? Or do they look at McGahee or Price and say that it is their turn? We will find out in just about 10 weeks as we await the official announcement of the Class of 2019.   You can almost smell the desperation in the air as three USFL clubs remain winless heading into Week 4, including one of our Friday night combatants. It will be the winless Washington Federals heading to New Jersey to face the Generals that kicks off Week 4 of the USFL schedule. New Jersey got their first win this past week and look to hit .500 with another, but the Feds have absolutely no interest in dropping to 0-4, so you know they will be up for this one.   Saturday sees another winless club trying to get that first notch in the win column, as Oklahoma will get a chance to earn that W at home as they host the Denver Gold in a divisional game they can ill afford to lose. Other key games on Saturday include Memphis at Orlando, Portland heading to unbeaten Michigan, and a really interesting matchup in the South on NBC as the Breakers and Stallions face off at Protective Stadium.   Our last winless team is on display this Sunday, when the 0-3 Stars host the Houston Gamblers. That seems almost unfair as the defending league champions will be a very tough opponent for Philadelphia, even at the Linc. Another game to catch in the Northeast is Baltimore at Pittsburgh, with both clubs sitting atop the division at 2-1 and hoping to get to 3-1 and a great first quarter of their season. Other games we don’t want to miss include Oakland at Ohio, Charlotte at Atlanta, and a very intriguing Southwest battle as Dallas at 2-1, having suffered their first loss this week to Michigan, head to Arizona to see how they match up with the unbeaten Wranglers.   Friday @ 7pm ET           Washington (0-3) @ New Jersey (1-2)            NBC Friday @ 9:30pm ET       Las Vegas (1-2) @ San Diego (2-1)               FOX   Saturday @ 12pm ET     Memphis (2-1) @ Orlando (1-2)                        ABC Saturday @ 12pm ET   Jacksonville (2-1) @ Tampa Bay (1-2)               FOX Saturday @ 4pm ET     Denver (1-2) @ Oklahoma (0-3)                     ABC Saturday @ 4pm ET       Portland (1-2) @ Michigan (3-0)                      FOX Saturday @ 7pm ET     New Orleans (2-1) @ Birmingham (2-1)            NBC Saturday @ 9pm ET       Seattle (1-2) @ Chicago (2-1)                         ESPN/EFN   Sunday @ 12pm ET        Houston (2-1) @ Philadelphia (0-3)                ABC Sunday @ 12pm ET      Baltimore (2-1) @ Pittsburgh (2-1)                  FOX Regional Sunday @ 12pm ET      Oakland (2-1) @ Ohio (1-2)                              FOX Regional Sunday @ 4pm ET          St. Louis (1-2) @ Los Angeles (2-1)                  ABC Sunday @ 4pm ET         Dallas (2-1) @ Arizona (3-0)                             FOX Sunday @ 8pm ET         Charlotte (2-1) @ Atlanta (1-2)                         ESPN/EFN

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Another surprising POTW as Atlanta's backup QB, Deshone Kizer, the Notre Dame product came out like it was the Irish taking on Ball State, ripping through the Tampa Bay defense (which may be worse than Ball State's) for 328 yards and 4 touchdowns as the Fire get their first win in a 47-41 overtime thriller.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Michigan HB LeVeon Bell had a field day against the Federals, rushing for 215 yards on 25 carries and adding 2 scores on the ground as the Panthers put up over 300 total rushing yards on a Washington defense that should have had a better plan.

Two weeks in, and with exactly half of the league sitting at 1-1, early season parity is certainly in effect. There are certainly some clubs looking like they are at midseason form, including the 2-0 Showboats, Gamblers, Thunder, Panthers, and Wranglers. There are also a few surprises at 2-0, including the Dallas Roughnecks and the Charlotte Monarchs. On the flip side, many are surprised to see New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Washington all sitting at 0-2 after the first two games of their seasons. Likewise, few in Atlanta are happy this week after the Fire drop another game and, even worse, lose their QB for at least 2 weeks. It is far too early to tell how this season will end up, but for the clubs now at 0-2, the time will be now to turn things around. We are going to review all 14 games from the week, cover the early season stories, and give you a quick look at some rookies already locked into starting gigs across the league, but we start it all off with five early season success stories.   Five Early Season Success Stories It does not take long for teams to establish what they do well, and we have found 5 teams who are looking very good in at least one area of their game after only 2 weeks. Yes, a lot can change between now and June, but right now these five stories are worth talking about as the USFL gets into their seasonal groove.   Late Game Drama for Dallas It is not exactly a strategy, nor is it a classic example of a team strength, but what the Roughnecks have shown us this year is that they are not afraid to take a game to the wire, and that when it is on the line, they can step up. In Week 1 it meant putting 15 points up in the final 10 minutes of action to turn a 17-6 deficit into a 21-17 victory. This week it meant going to overtime to get the victory at home over Oklahoma, a feat that required a late field goal and some stalwart defense. Some might say that Dallas is doing it with smoke and mirrors, but we think they are doing it with persistence and intestinal fortitude, two traits that can take a team pretty far.   The Michigan Defense As much as we like a team with spunk, nothing really beats a dominant defense, and that is what Michigan has shown us in two games. The Panther D currently ranks 1 st in scoring, allowing only 8.5 points per game after holding Ohio to 1 lone score and then limiting Washington to 10 points. Their shut-down defense has allowed them to build up a 61-17 advantage in scoring after two weeks. It also has them sitting at 2-0, though some credit should also go to an offense that put up over 300 yards rushing this week, including an impressive 215 from perennial OPOTY candidate LeVeon Bell.   The Tampa Bay Passing Game We told you before the season started that the Bandits might have to win shootouts if they wanted to win at all, and so far this year that Bandit offense is doing their part. The Bandits put up 30 in a season-opening win in Las Vegas and another 30 this week against the defending league champion Gamblers. It was not enough this week as the Gamblers had 35 points of their own, but you cannot blame the offense for that. So, what is working so well for the Bandit offense? It’s all about the passing game, the top-ranked attack in the league, averaging over 350 yards per game, with Dak Prescott nearly 200 yards ahead of the 2 nd  leading passer in yards. Prescott has over 700 yards passing in 2 weeks, and he is mixing it up, with TE Jordan Cameron leading the team in receptions, Ryan Grant leading in yards, and Dez Bryant already in the groove. Add to this 2 touchdowns to backup TE Ryan Izzo, another to HB Dalvin Cook, and two long completions to rookie Deebo Samuel already, and the return of Bandit Ball my finally be in effect.   Chicago’s Aggressive 4th Down Play It won’t show up in any of the main statistical lists, where Chicago is ranked 20 th  in points and 22 nd  in yards per game, but there is one thing the Machine is doing well, and often. They are converting on 4 th  down. Coach Lovie Smith has apparently decided that punting is overrated, and has been willing to mix it up with more 4 th  down attempts than any other team (by quite a bit). In just two games, the Machine have attempted 8 conversions on 4 th  down, and have picked up 7 of them. At that clip maybe it does make sense to leave punter Marquette King on the sideline.   San Diego’s Zone Run Scheme Ask Ryan Williams about his 228 rushing yards over 2 games, or about San Diego’s 149.5 YPG average on the ground and he will tell you exactly where the credit lies, with the line. San Diego is using a complex zone-read run blocking scheme that has guards Spencer Long and Mackenzie Bernadeu, center Hroniss Grasu, and tackles Jack Conklin and Antonio Garcia pulling more often than a taffy factory. Inside runs, outside runs, it does not matter, the Thunder are bringing linemen from all across the line into the play. They are also using 2 nd  TE Isaac Nauta as a de facto 3 rd  tackle, with the big man taking out strongside linebackers on a regular basis. It is working, San Diego is 2-0 and the run game is among the best in the league, and until someone figures out how to counter it, this run blocking strategy will continue to be the reason why.   OAKLAND INVADERS 27  NEW ORLEANS BREAKERS 33  OVERTIME After a rough Week 1 road trip to Seattle, the New Orleans Breakers were set for their home opener at the Super Dome, but facing the Oakland Invaders, a defense that had shut out LA in Week 1, they knew they would be tested. It would be the first start in the USFL for former New York Jet and Giant QB Geno Smith, a first chance to impress the new home fans and put his NFL issues behind him.   With 289 yards passing, 3 touchdowns and an overtime victory over the defending Pacific Division champs, it looks like Geno made the first impression he and Coach Lathon were counting on. In a game that likely has New Orleans defenders feeling a bit shellshocked, Oakland put up 401 yards of offense and scored the only points of the 4 th  quarter to send the game to overtime, but in the extra period, the Breakers’ new quarterback showed exactly why the team brought him in from the cold. He completed 3 of 3 on the drive, including the game winner, a 17-yard strike to Kenny Britt to get New Orleans the home victory.   In a game that saw 45 of the game’s 60 points scored in the first half, Geno and the Breakers started fast, taking the opening kickoff down the field 77 yards and putting up 7 points on a Smith to Jordy Nelson fade route from the 11. The Breakers had done in less than 5 minutes what the Express had failed to do against the Invaders in their entire Week 1 game, put points on the scoreboard. But Oakland also looked good in their first drive, With Christian McCaffrey rushing for 27 yards on the opening drive before Jimmy Garoppolo called his own number, rushing in from the 3 on a nice bootleg fake.   And while the first quarter saw both teams put up points, it would be the 2 nd  quarter when both offenses shone the brightest. Oakland would put up 14 points, both scores coming from McCaffrey, while New Orleans would add 17 points, thanks in part to a pick-6 of Garoppolo on a poorly timed throw that fell to FS Clyde Adams, the first of two picks he would record on the day. The Breakers also got a huge play from the combo of Smith and Nelson, as a hook & go turned into an 85-yard touchdown strike as Smith showed he still had a gun for an arm, and the Breaker line kept him safe and sound in the pocket. That play, more than any other, got the fans to their feet and got some buzz going about the man New Orleans had signed just 3 weeks ago, much to the chagrin of many Breaker fans, who had hoped for either Ryan Nassib or Kyler Murray.   Smith had an outstanding first half, as had the Invader offense, but both of these clubs are defensive-minded teams and both DCs spent halftime making adjustments to try to stem the tide of big scores. The adjustments worked, with the second half producing only 3 field goals in total. The first gave New Orleans a 6-point lead at 27-21, but in the 4 th  quarter, the Invaders got two kicks from Roberto Aguayo, enough to even the game at 27 at the end of regulation. The second half also saw 4 turnovers as Geno Smith struggled to compensate for increased pressure from the Oakland front seven. He would throw 2 picks in the half, one turning into Oakland’s first field goal of the half. Jimmy G would not fare much better, throwing a second pick to Adams and also fumbling twice due to defensive pressure. He was fortunate that both fumbles were recovered by his teammates, producing no more turnovers, but it was still a frustration for the Invader QB. With the game tied up by Oakland in the final 30 seconds of action, New Orleans took a knee and went to overtime. In the extra period, the Breakers would win the toss and ask for the ball. But the Invader D was ready and in only 7 plays they would force the Breakers to punt the ball away. But Garoppolo and the Invader offense also struggled in overtime, with Christian McCaffrey bottled up, and the passing game unable to convert on a 3 rd  and 8. New Orleans would get the ball back with 6 minutes left in the extra period.   Needing only a field goal to take the W, the Breakers took the field for the second time in the extra period. They got off to a quick start with Geno hitting Coby Fleener for his 7 th  catch on the day, a 9-yarder that set up an easy 2 nd  and 1 for HB Leonard Fournette. Smith then found rookie Dawson Knox on a nice 12-yard gainer. In just a few plays they had crossed midfield, and Oakland was forced to defend the 30 yard line as if it were the endzone, not wanting to give kicker Caleb Sturgis a shot at a makeable field goal. That strategy backfired as a nice double move route from Jordy Nelson got him in position to make a 25-yard catch and set New Orleans up well within range for Sturgis. But with it being only 1 st down, the Breakers wanted to get closer. Coach Lathon called a bootleg for Smith, and the call worked to perfection, with the linebackers crashing towards Fournette, Smith escaped with the ball, found Kenny Britt and 17-yards later, the Breakers had the winning score, and the Breaker crowd went home a lot more confident in the team’s plan for success than when they showed up for the game earlier that day. Both clubs would leave the stadium at 1-1, but New Orleans came out feeling they may have just shown that they were not going anywhere, and would again be a big part of the Southern Division.   WASHINGTON 10   MICHIGAN 27 If I am a defender on the Federals I am not going to want to be there for the film review, because Michigan put up 307 yards rushing and made it look easy. 2018 OPOTY LeVeon Bell rushed 25 times for 215 yards and 2 scores and rookie Alexander Mattison chipped in another 92 yards as the Panthers just manhandled the Washington front 7. Kirk Cousins only had to attempt 17 passes (connecting on 13) and Michigan won this one pulling away. POTG:  Panther HB LeVeon Bell: 25 Att, 215 Yds, 2 TD, 3 Rec, 19 Yds   OKLAHOMA 20   DALLAS 23       OVERTIME Another tight game, another comeback win for the Roughnecks and another tough loss for the Outlaws as Dallas got the game-tying field goal late in the 4 th  and then added the game winner in overtime to move to 2-0 on the season and in the division. Dallas survived 3 Josh Freeman picks, thanks in part to 2 picks by Joe Flacco in a sloppy offensive game. Oklahoma had a good game from Marshawn Lynch (126 yards and TD), but it was not enough as Chandler Catanzaro hit from 40 to send the game to extra time and then connected for the game winner. POTG:  Roughneck CB Patrick Peterson: 5 Tck, 1 Int, 1 Def TD   PITTSBURGH 44   JACKSONVILLE 26 Last week the Bulls surprised us all with an offensive explosion. This week it was Pittsburgh’s turn as the Mauler offense put up 410 yards of offense and 44 points. Adam Thielen and Jarvis Landry combined for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns, Sony Michel had a huge day with 119 yards, including a 46-yard TD scamper, and the Maulers put up 20 unanswered in the 2 nd  quarter to take a commanding 30-9 lead they would never relinquish. POTG:  Pittsburgh WR Adam Thielen: 7 Rec, 92 Yds, 2 TD   LOS ANGELES 20  CHICAGO 10 Sam Bradford was held out of this matchup with his former club, and Trevor Siemian simply did not have the stuff against an Express defense that played solidly. The Express D held Chicago under 100 yards rushing and rookie Kyler Murray had his first pro touchdowns, hitting both Nelson Agholor and Marques Valdez-Scantling for scores as the Express doubled up the Machine for their first win on the year. POTG:  Express CB Stephon Gilmore: 5 Tck, 1 FF, 1 FR   ARIZONA 27  PORTLAND 7 The wet weather proved to be no concern for the Wranglers, who got 2 touchdowns from former Mauler WR Victor Cruz and “cruzed” to victory over the Stags. Isaiah Crowell added another touchdown and the Wranglers got their first look at Calais Campbell in midseason form as the big man recorded 3 sacks on Marcus Mariota, three of six he would suffer on the day. POTG:  Arizona DE Calais Campbell: 6 Tck, 3 Sck   ST. LOUIS 10   OHIO 15 The Glory offense continues to struggle to find itself, but the D came through to give Ohio a win at home. St. Louis racked up 410 yards of offense but only one lone TD, while Ohio got all their scoring from kicker Robbie Gould. Eddie Lacy looked very good with 123 yards rushing, while Lamar Jackson had a ball picked off in the endzone that could have won it for the Skyhawks. Christian Hackenberg completed 18 of 25 passing but every time the Glory got into scoring range they got held up and had to go for the kick. POTG:  Ohio kicker Robbie Gould: 5 for 5 on FG.   SEATTLE 17   SAN DIEGO 27 Christian Ponder threw for 3 scores and Ryan Williams put up an impressive 181 yards rushing to lead San Diego to a 2-0 start. The Dragon defense just could not keep Williams contained, and while the Dragons also moved the ball effectively, with Jacoby Brissett throwing for 381 yards on 32 of 54 passing, they just could not turn those yards into points. POTG:  Thunder HB Ryan Williams: 14 Att, 181 Yds   NEW JERSEY 12   BALTIMORE 28 With Nick Foles held out due to an injury concern, the Generals’ offense withered, and Baltimore took the divisional win. Josh Jacobs rushed for 85 yards and Big Ben found both C. J. Uzomah and Denarious Moore for scores as the Blitz put 7 on the board in every quarter. Muhamed Sanu played well for New Jersey, with 5 catches, 119 yards, and a score, but it was not enough as the favorite to win the division drops to 0-2. POTG:  Baltimore HB Kerwynn Williams; 6 Att, 40 Yds, 2 TD    CHARLOTTE 19   PHILADELPHIA 10 Mitch Trubisky becomes the next QB pulled from a game after a big hit, and Tyler Thigpen holds on to get the W as the Monarchs shut down the Philadelphia offense. The Monarchs picked off Matt Gutierrez 3 times and sacked him 5 times as well, all the while limiting Derrick Henry to 29 total yards rushing in a display of aggressive defense with precision tackling. POTG:  Charlotte safety Tre Boston: 1 Tck, 4 PDef, 2 Int   TAMPA BAY 30  HOUSTON 35 Another 300-yard effort from Dak Prescott, but it was not enough as Colt McCoy and Carlos Hyde ran roughshod through the Tampa Defense. Hyde finished with 128 yards and 2 scores, while McCoy passed for 337 and 2 scores as well. All that offset a 100-yard game from Dalvin Cook and 347 from Dak Prescott, who threw for 4 TDs in a losing cause. POTG:  Gambler HB Carlos Hyde: 19 Att, 128 Yds, 2 TD, 3 Rec, 42 Yds   ATLANTA 17   LAS VEGAS 38 Matt McGloin made the most of his debut in Wynn Arena, completing 19 of 22 for 244 yards and throwing touchdowns to 4 different receivers as the Vipers showed up the Atlanta defense to win their home opener. Atlanta went through 3 quarterbacks in the game as both Aaron Murray and Deshone Kizer had to be taken to the locker room after tough takedowns. Meanwhile, Aaron Dobson scored his first Viper TD and Viper free safety Antrel Rolle came away with 2 picks on the day. POTG:  Viper QB Matt McGloin: 19/22, 244 Yds, 4 TD, 0 Int   ORLANDO 19   DENVER 31 Another case of a new QB playing for the home crowd for the first time as Denver’s Josh Allen went 16 of 23 for 311 yards and 4 touchdowns. He did throw a couple of picks, including one very poor decision to throw in coverage, but the Gold dominated as Allen connected with TE Jack Doyle twice, and also threw TDs to both of his halfbacks. Murray and Lindsay also combined for 132 yards rushing as the Gold looked very solid in their home opener. POTG:  Gold QB Josh Allen: 16/23, 311 Yds, 4 TD, 2 Int   MEMPHIS 27   BIRMINGHAM 7 The Sunday night game, after a beautiful afternoon of pulled pork and ribs, was not quite as nice for the Stallion fans on hand. Memphis built up a 21-0 halftime lead thanks to 2 Lynch TD passes to Devin Funchess and Cordarelle Patterson and a Todd Gurley TD. Gurley finished the day with 18 carries for 79 yards, and Memphis ran for a combined 154 yards against their rivals. Cam Newton was again the leading rusher for the Stallions, with 67 yards and a TD, but it was far too little offense from Birmingham on the whole. POTG:  Memphis HB Todd Gurley: 18 Att, 79 Yds, 1 TD, 2 Rec, 25 Yds   Panthers Run Roughshod Over Federals’ D It is never a good sign when a defense gives up 200 yards to a team’s lead back. It is even worse when the backup gets another 92 in only 7 carries. That was the tally when the Panthers hosted Washington and simply ran over, around, and through the Federals’ defense. LeVeon Bell averaged a nasty 8.6 yards per carry, but even he had to be stunned by Alexander Mattison’s 92 yards and 13.1 YPC average. The Panthers ran the ball only 32 times, but gained over 300 yards in a game where Kirk Cousins was little more than an observer, putting the ball up only 17 times on the day.   Michigan was earnest this offseason about reclaiming the Central Division, and after knocking off their top rival, Ohio, by 27 points in their home opener, this week’s win over Washington showed that they are well-stocked to run their way back towards a division title, if not more. They head to Dallas for their first road game this week, and while the 2-0 Roughnecks have also been a fun story early in the season, the Panther run game will certainly be a huge test for Dallas, and for their new MLB, Clay Matthews.   Houston’s Big Guns Too Much for Bandits In a very high-spirited, high-flying game, the Bandits and Gamblers traded big plays this week, with Houston coming out on top 35-30, thanks in large part to their biggest stars. QB Colt McCoy threw for 337, including 2 scoring throws. Mike Evans blew the doors off the Tampa secondary, gaining 190 yards on only 7 catches, including a 61-yard catch that many Houston fans still insist was a TD (he was ruled out of bounds at the 2). Oh, and then there is Carlos Hyde, a quiet day for him, rushing for 128 and 2 scores. Tampa Bay was game, and certainly put up some big plays of their own, but when the defending champs have their offense in fifth gear, like they did this week, there are few teams that can keep up with them.   Josh Allen A Mile High in Denver After a heartbreaking season opener in Dallas, 2 nd  year QB Josh Allen and the Denver Gold came home to the newly redubbed Sports Authority Field (we still call it Mile High, or New Mile High), and made sure not to let history repeat itself. The former Wyoming QB introduced himself to Denver fans in a pretty spectacular way, throwing for 311 yards and 4 TDs. Yes, he did have two picks on the day, but one was far more the fault of his receiver than his throw, and with a 12 point win in hand, it was a clear case of no harm, no foul.   Allen distributed the ball well, hung in the pocket against decent pressure from Orlando (4 sacks), and found his receivers effectively. Despite primarily targeting Golden Tate and Michael Crabtree, when points were on the line, Allen moved his eyes off his primary receivers and found the open man. Twice that open man was blocking TE Jack Doyle, who finished the day with 3 catches but 2 touchdowns. Starter T. J. Hockenson also saw the ball, as did both halfbacks, with Phillip Lindsay bringing in a 33-yard catch and run and DeMarco Murray catching two balls for 32 yards and a score. Coach Hufnagel has to be happy the way his team rebounded and Denver fans have to be happy to see their 2 nd  year QB, who did not start at all as a rookie, looking like his year of observing and learning has paid off.   McGloin Rebounds With Big Game in Vegas Home Opener After a tough 30-23 loss in Tampa Bay, Matt McGloin also rebounded with a nice performance in his home opener as the new QB of the Las Vegas Vipers. McGloin, who did not play badly in Tampa (26 of 38 for 274 yards, 2 TD and 1 pick), was at another level this week at home against Atlanta. The former Seattle backup had more touchdowns (4) than incompletions (3) on the day, going 19 of 22 for 244 yards and 4 scoring tosses. Four different receivers caught scoring tosses from the new Viper QB, including a 48-yard strike to Arrelious Benn and an even nicer 60-yarder to Aaron Dobson, a player known for making catches underneath, not taking them to the house. In addition to the 4 TD tosses, a late 1-yard run gave McGloin a fifth TD on the day, accounting in one way or another for 30 of the Viper’s 38 points. Not a bad debut at home in the Wynn Arena.   Campbell Nabs 3 Sacks in Arizona’s Route of Portland Quarterbacks were not the only ones having a good week 2. Calais Campbell feasted on the Portland Stags as the Wranglers moved to 2-0 with a 20-point victory on the road. Campbell, who had been held to only 1 sack in the opener against Oklahoma, found Portland QB Marcus Mariota 3 times in this week’s game, also recording 6 tackles against the run-dominant Stag offense. The 3-sack day helped propel Campbell atop the Sack Leaderboard, a location he is well-accustomed to and one he rarely leaves once he gets there. With the Wranglers headed home to State Farm Stadium (another recently renamed facility) this week, when Arizona takes on arch-rival Denver and their young QB, Josh Allen, Campbell will finally have a chance to impress his newest fans live and in-person.   Aaron Murray to Miss 2-4 Weeks After Fracture Week Two was kind to many QBs across the league, but Atlanta’s Aaron Murray was not one of them. Murray was having a tough game against the Vipers, throwing 2 picks, sacked 3 times, and trailing 31-17 early in the 4 th , when his week got a lot worse. In the middle of a fierce rush from Las Vegas DE Mario Addison, Murray stood in the pocket, and just got a pass off before Addison reached him, but in his follow through, Murray’s arm crashed into the crown of Addison’s helmet, and after falling to the ground with Addison’s glancing hit, Murray got up slowly, holding his arm in his non-throwing hand. He would be taken to the locker room and then to the X-Ray machine. The results were what both he and Coach Arians feared, a fracture in the Ulna, one of the two bones that make up the lower arm. It was not a displacement, and there appeared to be no chips, so the bone should heal in relatively short order, but the diagnosis likely means that Murray will miss at least 3 weeks, possibly as many as 5 or 6.   Things were not much better for his understudy as Deshone Kizer lasted only 7 plays from scrimmage before he had to come out of the game after having his head hit the Wynn Arena turf on a sack by Matthew Judon. Undrafted free agent and emergency QB Derek Black, out of Furman, was forced into action and finished out the final possession for the Fire. While Kizer is back in practice after clearing the league’s concussion protocol, and likely will start the next handful of games, for Murray the next few weeks will be filled with treatments, MD visits and PT as he hopes to get back in action as soon as possible.   While the obvious big blow came for the Express, who will be without DT Chris Jones for at least 2 months, what we saw this week was a widespread rash of frustrating minor injuries, the kind of injury report we expect to see in Weeks 12-16, when wear and tear just lead to pulls, inflammation, and tired bones. No real easy answer as to why these kinds of injuries are appearing now. Some perhaps can be attributed to players still not being in midseason form yet, but a lot of injuries that just seem quirky, including the toe “stub” which could keep Mitch Trubisky out of action for Charlotte.   OUT DT         Chris Jones                LA          Achilles Tendon    8-12 Weeks QB         Aaron Murray               ATL         Arm                          2-4 Weeks DE          Ezekiel Ansah                 NOR      Ribs                          2-4 Weeks CB          Chimdi Chekwa            OHI       Abdomen                2-4 Weeks SS           Tyvon Branch                  PIT         Back                         1-2 Weeks TE           Gavin Escobar                 JAX         Collarbone              1-2 Weeks LB           Roquon Smith             STL         Thigh                       1-2 Weeks G            Keleche Osamele          STL         Abdomen                 1-2 Weeks CB          Rashaan Gaulden          MEM     Finger                      1-2 Weeks CB          Devin McCourty              NJ           Knee                         1-2 Weeks G            Donald Brown                 DAL       Hand                       1-2 Weeks WR         Justin Blackmon             CHA      Hamstring                 1-2 Weeks G            Michael Dunn                 LV           Foot                        1-2 Weeks WR         Cody Latimer                 MGN     Neck                         1-2 Weeks   DOUBTFUL OT          Nat Dorsey                  LV           Hamstring WR         Brian Hartline                  BAL        Hand FB          Greg Jones                    OKL       Hand OT          Marcus Gilbert                NOR      Ankle WR         Brandin Cooks               POR      Hand   QUESTIONABLE HB         Anthony Allen               WSH     Arm OT          Gabe Carimi                MGN     Neck QB         Mitch Trubisky                 CHA      Toe DT          Aaron Donald              PIT         Concussion C             Kevin Sikes                     ARZ       Toe CB          Derech Cox                     CHA      Hip LB           Justin Holins                  POR      Ankle   USFL Stadium Situation on Solid Ground It has been a while since we discussed the stadium situation around the league. Apart from the tornadoes that forced the closure of the Alamodome and the relocation of the Outlaws, we have largely been seeing stability and the occasional renovation project. The most recent new stadium, outside of Oklahoma City was in DC where the Federals and DC United football club joined forces to build a new facility called Audi Field, opened last year. So, as we look around the league, how is everyone doing when it comes to their stadium situation? Overall, pretty solid, by all accounts, but there is always room for improvement. Here is where we see each club at present, and what may be coming down the road in the next few years.   NEW FACILTIES FILLED WITH HAPPY CAMPERS These are teams that have a pretty brand new facility and are in good shape with a contract that provides ample revenue from concessions, parking, and other stadium revenue generators. In other words, it may be a while before any of these teams start talking about renovation or a new facility.   ATLANTA Mercedes-Benz Stadium (2017) Capacity: 79,330 A bright, shiny and new convertible dome stadium. The only potential here is overcrowding as the Fire share the stadium with the NFL Falcons and MLS Atlanta United.   BIRMINGHAM Protective Stadium (2018) Capacity: 60,035 One of the smaller stadiums in the league, but really an ideal size for the Stallions, who can sell out 60,000 from time to time.   LAS VEGAS Wynn Arena (2015) Capacity: 65,022 Home to Summer Bowl 2019, the new domed facility in Las Vegas means the Vipers will not have any horrible 100-degree games like the former Thunder did at Sam Boyd.   OKLAHOMA OGE Energy Stadium (2015) Capacity: 64,077 A stadium designed almost exclusively to lure a USFL team to the Sooner State, OGE Energy Stadium is about as solid a situation as any team could ask for, including no other permanent tenants, only the occasional tractor pull, rodeo, or monster truck event.   SAN DIEGO Snapdragon Stadium (2016) Capacity: 58,744 The smallest stadium in the league, but honestly, it feels bigger, and 58k is often more than most USFL clubs draw, so it is not a big deal that they don’t top 60,000. Besides, open air football in San Diego is still one of the best weather options in the whole league. And try the Fish Tacos, a local favorite in the stadium.   WASHINGTON Audi Field (2018) Capacity: 60,122 Not a huge stadium, but a good fit for the Federals, who are just happy to get out of RFK before the whole structure collapsed on them from age. The designers did a great job of setting Audi up to be a solid 38,000 for soccer and then remove the tarps and you get another 22,000 seats for football.   FACILITIES WITH RECENT RENOVATION These facilities range from reasonably new to surprisingly old, but recent renovation work (indicated in parentheses) means that they have updates and new features that will make fans happy.   DALLAS Cotton Bowl Stadium (2008) Capacity: 80,202 A bit too big for the USFL in all honesty, but it is a facility with such history and the renovations have added some modern elements that fans appreciate.   JACKSONVILLE TIAA Bank Field (2016) Capacity: 67,814 It has been a while since the Bulls pulled 60k to a game, but it could happen if they become a contender. The stadium itself is not exactly cutting edge, but it gets the basics right with good sight lines and solid infrastructure.   MEMPHIS Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (2015) Capacity: 61,484 Even with the recent upgrades and additions, this still feels very much like a college stadium, with wide open sidelines, little shade on hot summer days, and pretty steep stairs. Memphis is not a market that can just throw together a $1B stadium proposal, so renovations are the best the Showboats can expect every decade or so. NEW JERSEY MetLife Stadium (2010) Capacity: 82,500 One of the largest stadiums in the league (as well as the NFL), but home to 3 football teams who rarely sell it out. The advantage the Generals have is that with both the Giants and Jets calling MetLife Home you have 3 big-money franchises sharing the cost of any improvements.   ORLANDO Camping World Stadium (2014) Capacity: 60,219 The 2014 renovations added some much needed amenities, but still no roof or awnings to protect folks from mid-summer heat.   POST-2000 STADIA THAT MAY NEED A FACELIFT These clubs are in stadia that are relatively recent, but beginning to show a bit of age. In some cases they could just use a bit of freshening up, in others it may eventually come down to a decision between sprucing up an aging facility or building something new, but likely not until 2030 at the earliest.   ARIZONA State Farm Stadium (2003) Capacity: 63,400 Phoenix needed a dome, they got one, and at the time it was cutting edge, with removable turf. It has held up well, so we don’t think we will see a push for any major upgrade for at least another decade.   DENVER Sports Authority Field (2001) Capacity: 76,125 Still a very nice stadium, and with the notoriously thrifty Gold involved, it may well be the Broncos who push for any major renovations. After all, it does still have their white horse standing prominently on the wall.   HOUSTON NRG Stadium (2002) Capacity: 72,220 A retractable roof dome is perfect for Houston. It allows some nice air during night games but can be closed when the heat or humidity get unbearable. It should be good to go for at least another 5-7 years before anything starts looking dated.   MICHIGAN Ford Field (2002) Capacity: 65,000 A much better stadium than the old Silverdome, though as Detroit’s economics have had some big hits, folks are less and less excited about coming downtown.    OAKLAND Levi’s Stadium (2005) Capacity: 68,500 The move from Oakland to Santa Clara was not popular with many Invader fans, but you cannot deny that Levi’s is a far superior facility to the old Coliseum. While it still feels weird for Oakland and the NFL 49ers to both play here, with neither changing the team name, it still works as a facility.   PHILADELPHIA Lincoln Financial Field (2003) Capacity: 67,594 The “Linc” is beloved compared to Veteran’s Stadium, where the turf caused more injuries than the NJ Turnpike. The Eagles and Stars play well together, and they seem committed to upgrades when needed, so we think this situation is pretty solid.   PITTSBURGH Heinz Field (2001) Capacity: 68,400 Not quite 20 years old yet, so we think maybe 2025 is when either the Maulers or Steelers will start asking for some upgrades. The Maulers are still pushing to host a Summer Bowl again, but that seems a bit of a non-starter, at least in the short term.   PORTLAND Columbia Sportswear Stadium (2005) Capacity: 60,204 Can anyone explain to me why Portland did not build a dome? No other venue sees more rain-impacted games than Portland and while the Stags are not exactly flush with cash, it has to be obvious that even adding awnings would be a good decision.   SEATTLE CenturyLink Stadium (2002) Capacity: 68,740 Another open air, rain-soaked stadium. Maybe the Seahawks don’t mind because September to December tends to be a bit dryer, but the Dragons rarely get through a season without 3-4 of their home games seeing major precipitation.   PRE-2000 STADIA THAT MAY NEED MAJOR WORK OR REPLACEMENT These are the stadiums that need some work already. Will they get renovated? Who will pay? Could a team use relocation as a bargaining chip?   BALTIMORE M&T Bank Stadium (1998) Capacity: 70,745 It was certainly an improvement over Memorial Stadium in the late 90’s but it is beginning to feel like a bit of a dinosaur already, only 20 years later.   CHARLOTTE Bank of America Stadium (1996) Capacity: 74,867 Honestly, the Monarchs would do well to play in a 50,000-seat stadium because they so rarely hit 60,000 much less 70k. But, the stadium is well-located, has some nice amenities, and even if the upper rows are like climbing Everest, they rarely have many fans in them anyway.   LOS ANGELES Farmers Insurance Field (1995) Capacity: 68,240 A stadium built mostly for the Raiders, now home to the Chargers and Rams, and with the Express always there, but there is talk of a new facility being built to help support all three clubs. You would think that if each of the 3 could contribute funding the city would be happy to pay only 1/4 th  the total cost.   TAMPA BAY: Raymond James Stadium (1996) Capacity: 69,218 While a game at Raymond James is still a lot of fun, even if the Bandits and Bucs are not exactly racking up titles, the issue is that the stadium is falling behind in the kind of amenities that Gen-Z and Millennials expect. It likely is not a major overhaul needed, but some spending on the fan experience would be great.   TEAMS LOBBYING FOR A NEW FACILITY There is no doubt these clubs want a new home. They have made that perfectly clear. The problem, as always, is who pays for it.   CHICAGO Soldier Field (2003) Capacity: 66,944 Fans love the venerable stadium, even with its bizarre crashed-spaceship redo, but both the Machine and the Bears are beginning to think that moving out of downtown could actually increase their profitability.   NEW ORLEANS Mercedes-Benz Superdome (2006) Capacity: 73,208 The post-Katrina fix-up only went so far. Compared to most post-2000 domes, the Super Dome feels like a relic of the past. New Orleans needs a dome, that is certain, especially for play in June or July, but maybe something like what we see in Houston or Atlanta instead of a huge concrete tomb.   OHIO Ohio Stadium (2014) Capacity: 66,200 We are listing the max capacity of Ohio Stadium at 66K only because the Glory have been using tarps for years to reduce the huge size of this 100K stadium down to something manageable. Ohio is still in talks with the MLS Columbus Crew to try to get something in the 56,000-58,000 range built. That may seem small for those used to NFL stadia, but for the USFL that is right in the wheelhouse of what a team wants to see.   ST. LOUIS The Dome at America’s Center (2010) Capacity: 67,277 We are not sure what the renovations in 2010 really added, because games in the Dome still feel very dreary and almost claustrophobic. There is talk of a new stadium for the MLS, an outdoor stadium, and if the Skyhawks can get in on that they may be able to get a deal like the Feds have, a stadium that can seat both USFL crowds and the smaller MLS capacity. If not, then they may struggle as the Dome just gets older and older and uglier and uglier.   Week Three features the always dangerous 0-2 teams doing all they can to avoid a 0-3 start, but it also features a matchup of 2-0 clubs hoping to keep things rolling. We start on Friday with two of those 0-2 clubs looking to get that first W as New Jersey heads into Ohio hoping with no desire to drop a 3 rd  straight game. Las Vegas is in Orlando, where the Renegades have been ball hawking (6 picks in 2 games) but have not been able to get their offense on track.   Saturday has a classic NE Division matchup with Baltimore headed into Washington for a Beltway Brawl that the 0-2 Feds cannot afford to lose. At 4pm it is 0-2 Oklahoma, who have been in both games but have not been able to come out on top. Will they find success with the Jacksonville Bulls coming to town. The two night games are also intriguing, with 2-0 Memphis headed up to Pittsburgh to take on the Maulers, followed by a SW Division clash as Josh Allen and the Denver Gold head down to Arizona to face the archrival Wranglers, with Calais Campbell looking to welcome Allen to the league in a way only he can.   Sunday kicks off with New Orleans at Philadelphia and Atlanta in Tampa Bay. Both the Stars and Fire feel like their seasons are teetering after only 2 weeks, and without Aaron Murray, can the Fire take advantage of what has been a pretty porous Bandit defense? At 4pm we have a good one as two 2-0 clubs, Michigan and Dallas, face off at the Cotton Bowl. Can the Roughnecks surprise us for a 3 rd  straight week? We finish off the week with a California Derby as the LA Express take on the unbeaten San Diego Thunder. Expect lots of Thunder fans to make the trip up to Farmers Insurance Stadium for this one. Friday @ 7pm ET         New Jersey (0-2) @ Ohio (1-1)                      NBC Friday @ 9:30pm ET       Las Vegas (1-1) @ Orlando (0-2)                   ABC   Saturday @ 12pm ET     Birmingham (1-1) @ Charlotte (2-0)               ABC Saturday @ 12pm ET       Baltimore (1-1) @ Washington (0-2)                FOX Saturday @ 4pm ET         St. Louis (1-1) @ Chicago (1-1)                        ABC Saturday @ 4pm ET        Jacksonville (1-1) @ Oklahoma (0-2)              FOX Saturday @ 7pm ET        Memphis (2-0) @ Pittsburgh (1-1)                    NBC Saturday @ 9pm ET       Denver (1-1) @ Arizona (2-0)                             ESPN/EFN   Sunday @ 12pm ET     New Orleans (1-1) @ Philadelphia (0-2)          ABC Regional Sunday @ 12pm ET        Atlanta (0-2) @ Tampa Bay (1-1)                       ABC Regional Sunday @ 12pm ET         Oakland (1-1) @ Seattle (1-1)                          FOX Sunday @ 4pm ET           Michigan (2-0) @ Dallas (2-0)                            ABC Sunday @ 4pm ET           Houston (2-0) @ Portland (0-2)                        FOX Sunday @ 8pm ET        San Diego (2-0) @ Los Angeles (1-1)              ESPN/EFN

A real rarity for the USFL, an opening weekend in March with no snow, pretty nice temperatures all around and the only rain occurring in a region where it is expected, the Pacific Northwest. This was the ideal weekend for football, and fans turned out with huge crowds in Houston, Oklahoma, Birmingham, Michigan, Memphis, and Tampa Bay among other places. It was a weekend that saw the defenses generally ahead of the offenses, except in one expected case as Jacksonville and QB Teddy Bridgewater shocked everyone with a huge opening week performance. In Oakland the Invader defense made Marvin Lewis and the New Look Express struggle, shutting out their in-state rival, while in Orlando, the defense, playing without Calais Campbell for the first time in a decade, found a new hero as Dee Milliner scored 3 of the 4 picks thrown by Mitch Trubisky. It was a week of new faces and debut performances. Let’s get right to it and talk about football once again.   Opening Day a Huge Box Office Success as Weather Cooperates While most of the stories after this week’s action will be about what happened on the field, we thought we should highlight just how good a week it was in the stands. We have gotten so used to opening week in the USFL being plagued by bitter cold, harsh winds, snow, ice, and torrential rain, that we are just ready for the opening week to be a bit of a weather-induced bummer. But not this year. We got sun and moderate temperatures from Oakland to Baltimore. The only game-impacting weather was in Seattle and Portland, and even that was mild compared to past years. So, how did the USFL fanbase react? They came out in droves.   The USFL recorded its highest ever opening week crowd, and for the first time averaged over 50,000 butts in the stands across the entire league. Huge crowds were seen across the league, from 57,000 in Oakland to over 60,000 welcoming the 2018 Champion Houston Gamblers back to the field. Even some teams that have struggled the past few years saw good crowds, including over 50,000 in Tampa Bay, Orlando, Dallas, and Birmingham. The lowest attendance of the week was still a very solid 41,047 in Baltimore, where the Blitz took on St. Louis. That is a very good sign for the league, and a very welcome change of pace from past league openers.   Now, will that last? Well, maybe not. Denver, Chicago, and Ohio have their home openers this week and the forecast is not looking quite as pleasant for any of the three. We could also see rain in Dallas, where the Roughnecks host the Outlaws, and in Portland once again, when the Stags face the defending Western Conference Champion Wranglers. But it is March, so we have to expect some issues. And besides, if anyone is going to be able to handle a bit of wind, cold, or snow, it should be football fans in Denver, Chicago, or Ohio. For now, let’s just revel in the fact that football is back, and that most fans this week got to enjoy it with nothing more than a sweatshirt or light jacket on. DENVER GOLD 17   DALLAS ROUGHNECKS 21 We mentioned in our Season Preview edition that Dallas was a team that could make some moves, but that in order to do so they would need to get through a pretty tough opening stretch of divisional games. Well, if this week’s comeback victory over Denver is any indication, fans in Dallas could be in for a season to remember. The Roughnecks struggled for 3 quarters in their matchup against Von Miller and the Denver Gold defense, but in the final period they came alive, cashing in on two late drives to turn a 17-6 deficit into a 21-17 victory in their home opener.   The Gold, who got a pretty solid opening game from 2 nd  year QB Josh Allen, including TD tosses of 86 and 41 yards, showing off Allen’s cannon of an arm, saw their lead shink away as Josh Freeman mounted the Dallas comeback. Despite putting pressure on Freeman all game, Denver recorded only 2 sacks and in the final period, Freeman was able to complete 11 of 13 passes as the Roughnecks took advantage of some late game wearing down of Denver defenders who were perhaps not yet at full regular season conditioning yet.   The game was very much a contrast of styles. Denver set up to play a run-first offense, using carries from DeMarco Murray and Phillip Lindsay to set up Josh Allen for the occasional deep throw. Allen would only complete 9 passes on the day, but he found enough deep balls, including the long TD tosses to help Denver build up a lead. Dallas, on the other hand, used short passes to keep Von Miller and company off of Freeman. The Roughneck QB would put the ball up 42 times, completing 25 but averaging only 6.2 yards per completion compared to Josh Allen’s 11.6.   Through 3 quarters, Dallas mustered only two field goal drives, and Freeman had completed 14 of 29 passing, but in the 4 th , he found his groove as urgency kicked in for the homestanding Roughnecks. It began early in the quarter after a Josh Allen to Golden Tate TD had increased Denver’s lead to 17-6. On the ensuing drive, Freeman connected twice with Sammy Watkins, once with HB Samaje Perine, and then found Courtland Sutton for the big receiver’s first score of the season to pull Dallas within 3.   When Denver could not get in range for kicker Greg Zeurlein, Dallas took over on their own 17 and once again Josh Freeman set out to win the “Battle of the Joshes” and the game. This time it would be Watkins who would get the scoring toss. After dinking and dunking the ball into Denver territory, using a no huddle to help wear down the Gold defenders, Freeman pumped once to freeze the safety, then found Watkins at the 5. The speedy receiver initially tipped the ball up, but then snatched it out of the air and fell into the endzone for the go-ahead score. Dallas took a 4-point lead with just 1:28 left to play.   Denver mounted a final drive, and at first it looked very promising, with Allen finding tight end T. J. Hockenson for his first catch of the day, a beautiful and very needed 18-yard completion on a 3 rd and 11, but then a holding call and two straight missed throws doomed the desperation drive. On a 4 th  and 9, Allen could not connect with Golden Tate and the Roughnecks took over on downs to secure the win and start the year off on a positive note.   OHIO 7   MICHIGAN 34 A rough start for the defending Central Division champs as the Panthers were all over Ohio in this one. The Glory managed only 9 first downs and 1 third down conversion as the Michigan defense was utterly dominant. Dee Ford had a huge game with 6 tackles, 2 fumbles caused and recovered, and a defensive touchdown on a strip sack in the endzone. All in all Ohio had a whopping 6 turnovers, as they simply could not hold onto the ball, giving up 4 fumbles. POTG:  Michigan DE Dee Ford: 6 Tck, 1 Sck, 2 FF, 2 FR, 1 Def TD   NEW JERSEY 17   HOUSTON 34 The Gamblers scored the first 20 points of the game, all in the first quarter as they rolled past the Generals in their home opener. Nearly 60,000 were on hand to welcome home the league champions, and they got to see the Gamblers firing on all cylinders, with Mike Evans racking up his first 100-yard game of the year, and Leodis McKelvin putting the cherry on the sundae with a 100-yard pick-six in the fourth quarter. POTG:  Houston WR Mike Evans; 4 Rec, 109 Yds, 1 TD   WASHINGTON 13   MEMPHIS 16 A really competitive game that went down to the wire before Lewis Ward kicked the game winner for the home team with only 9 seconds on the clock. The Feds lost Anthony Allen to an injury on his first carry of the game and that hampered them all game long, while Memphis struggled to get their run game going, with Todd Gurley only able to average 2.2 yards per carry, but Paxton Lynch led a successful 2-minute drill in the 4 th quarter to get the Showboats in position and the winning kick sends the fans home happy in Memphis. POTG:  Memphis rookie DE Chase Winovich: 3 Tck, 1 Sck   CHICAGO 22  PITTSBURGH 14 Sam Bradford got the start, but it was Trevor Siemian who got the win for Chicago. Down 14-8 in the 4 th , Siemian came in after Bradford took a hard hit from Shaq Reddick and led Chicago on two scoring drive, throwing a TD to Kenny Golladay and leading the Machine down for a Jeremy Hill TD run in the final minutes. Pittsburgh had benefited from a solid passing day, with both Adam Thielen and NFL import Jarvis Landry both going over 100 yards, but they could not muster any points after Chicago took the lead and fell in their home opener. POTG:  Chicago QB Trevor Siemian: 16/23, 132 Yds, 1 TD, 0 Int   PHILADELPHIA 14   BIRMINGHAM 20 Cam Newton threw for 220 and ran for 43 as the Stallions held off the Stars to win their home opener in front of 51,258. The run game was still an issue for the Stallions, whose tailbacks gained only 23 yards on the day, but Newton made up with it with several big runs, including a 9-yard TD run in the 2 nd  quarter. Derrick Henry averaged 4.9 per carry but had only 14 touches on the day for Philadelphia, while Travis Kelce caught 5 for 84 to lead all receivers. POTG:  Birmingham QB Cam Newton: 21/33, 220 Yds, 1 TD, 0 Int, 15 Att, 43 Yds, 1 TD   NEW ORLEANS 7   SEATTLE 10 In one of two rain-impacted games in a relatively sunny opening week for the league, Seattle and New Orleans slogged their way through a low-scoring affair. Pat White got the start for New Orleans had little luck putting points on the board as kicker Caleb Sturgis missed two water-logged kicks. Jacoby Brissett went 15 of 26 for only 133 but added a 12-yard TD to Marshall Newhouse and Jeffery Harris connected on a 41-yarder for the winning score as Seattle avoids that dreaded 0-5 start by winning their opener this year. POTG:  Seattle LB Khalil Mack: 8 Tck, 1 Sck   CHARLOTTE 19  ORLANDO 16 A good game in the Southeast, as the Renegades and Monarchs duked it out. Orlando CB Dee Milliner had a huge game, picking off Mitch Trubisky 3 times. With 4 picks in the game, Trubisky was lucky to finish the game at QB, much less to earn the win, but he put Charlotte in position late for a game winning Steven Earl field goal, so he gets credit there. Orlando was led by 74 yards rushing from Rashad Jennings, who split carries with former Invader Knile Davis. Brashad Perriman had himself a day as well, catching 5 for 120 and a touchdown. POTG:  Orlando CB Dee Milliner: 6 Tck, 3 Int   LOS ANGELES 0 OAKLAND 20 Not the day Marvin Lewis and the Express were hoping for as the veteran Oakland defense dominated, holding Kyler Murray and LA to only 8 first downs, 1 converted third down, and 196 total yards of offense. Murray threw 2 picks, and the Express committed 4 turnovers in total as Oakland, a bit slow on offense, won this game with their dominating D. POTG:  Oakland CB Eric Wright: 5 Tck, 2 Int, 1 FF   JACKSONVILLE 42  ATLANTA 27 Teddy Bridgewater lays down a claim on the Bulls’ QB job by going 24 of 28 for 243 and 3 scores, while also rushing the ball for 52 yards and 2 touchdowns in a very Jake Plummer/Cam Newton performance to open the season. Atlanta’s defense looked shellshocked as they gave up 362 yards of offense to the Bulls, aided by 4 turnovers by the Fire offense. Bridgewater connected with 9 different receivers, led the team in rushing, and had no turnovers in a huge road opener for the Bulls. POTG:  Bulls’ QB Teddy Bridgewater: 24/28, 243 Yds, 3 TD, 0 Int, 9 Att, 52 Yds, 2 TD   ST.LOUIS 29  BALTIMORE 27 One of the best games of the week, St. Louis took a 7-3 lead early in the 2 nd  and never relinquished it, but Baltimore was right there the whole time. Big Ben threw for 3 scores while the Skyhawks held Josh Jacobs to 52 yards rushing in his first pro game. Eddie Lacy ran for 71, Lamar Jackson threw for 242 and connected with Allen Robinson and rookie Deionte Johnson for scores as the Skyhawks get the narrow win on the road to open their 2019 campaign. POTG:  Skyhawk LB Trey Hendrickson: 7 Tck, 1 Sck, 1 Sfty   LAS VEGAS 23   TAMPA BAY 30 Something of a shootout in Tampa as Matt McGloin and Dak Prescott combined for 629 yards passing and 4 touchdowns. Up only 23-16 midway through the 4 th , Tampa Bay got a huge play when Prescott hit Dez Bryant on a 52-yard completion. On the next play Dalvin Cook went in for the game-winning score as the Bandits get the home win in front of 50,721 at Raymond James. POTG:  Tampa Bay QB Dak Prescott: 19/28, 355 Yds, 2 TD, 1 Int   SAN DIEGO 24   PORTLAND 17 While not quite as rainy as Seattle, fans in Portland had their ponchos on as they watched San Diego get two first quarter pick-sixes to take a 14-0 lead as Marcus Mariota struggled. Mariota would get the offense going later, but it was too little too late as San Diego just kept extending the score every time Portland pulled closer. Christian Ponder threw for only 165 but avoided turning the ball over in the rain, his lone TD a short toss to little-used 3 rd  TE Isaac Nauta. POTG:  San Diego CB Justin Gilbert: 7 Tck, 1 Int, 1 Def, TD, 1 FF   ARIZONA 26  OKLAHOMA 23 Oklahoma was game, taking a 23-20 lead into the 4 th  quarter, but the Outlaws were shut out in the final 15, while David Carr led the Arizona offense on 2 field goal drives to secure the win. Arizona’s revamped receiving corps looked solid, with Victor Cruz catching 4 for 93 yards. NFL import Isaiah Crowell rushed for 36 and turned a 5-yard swing route into a 65-yard catch and run for the biggest play of the game. Oklahoma was led by WR DeDe Westbrook, who caught a 56-yard TD from Joe Flacco. POTG:  Arizona CB Joe Haden: 5 Tck, 4 PDef, 1 Int, 1 FF, 1 FR Twelve Newcomers Making Immediate Impacts Opening week sees a lot of new arrivals across all 28 USFL clubs, and while some watched from the sidelines and others had only minimal snaps with their new teams, there were plenty of players who hit the ground running. We picked 12 of the players who made the most of their debuts with their new clubs. Here is solid dozen immediate impact arrivals.   Jarvis Landry, WR-PIT The Maulers fell 22-14 to the Machine, but one positive takeaway was the presence of NFL import Jarvis Landry, who lead all receivers in the game with 124 yards on 5 receptions. He also had one of the most exciting plays of the g game, a 58-yard catch and run early in the 4 th  to give Pittsburgh a 14-6 lead. The lead would not hold, but Landry certainly impressed us in his first USFL game.   Arik Armstead, DT-CHI In that same game another NFL import showed he was ready to take on the spring as defensive tackle Arik Armstead started his USFL career by leading Chicago with 5 tackles, including one for a loss. Armstead and the Chicago line also limited the Maulers to a paltry 33 total yards rushing on the day.   Victor Cruz, WR-ARZ Another receiver who had big shoes to fill was the former Mauler, and now the lead receiver for the Wranglers. Cruz takes over for retired legend Larry Fitzgerald, and in his first game he certainly did his part, catching 4 of 9 targets for 93 yards, a 23.2 YPC average.   Clay Matthews, LB-DAL We had a feeling that it would not take long for former Express MLB Clay Matthews to make an impression in Dallas. In his first game as a Roughneck, Matthews led all tacklers with 8 combined tackles, including one for a loss as Dallas came back late to defeat the Denver Gold.   Antonio Bryant, WR-MGN Back to the receivers on new teams as former Wrangler Antonio Bryant had his first action in Michigan’s plum jerseys. The speedburner showed off his hands with three quality catches, one of them a one handed grab that he corralled for a touchdown.   Shaq Barrett, LB-OAK Let’s go back to the defense to highlight the first game for Shaq Barrett, who joins 2018 DPOTY Bobby Wagner in the Invader LB corps. The Invaders shut out in-state rival Los Angeles and Barrett showed off his skills with 5 tackles, including 1 for a loss.   Isaiah Crowell, HB-ARZ Arizona had an NFL import of their own, and while Isaiah Crowell split carries with Ka’Deem Carey, he showed he could be an option in the run game and the passing game as well, carrying the ball for 36 yards while also turning a simple swing pass into a 65-yard touchdown for Arizona.   Preston Brown, LB-TBY The first of two Bandit imports from the NFL we are going to highlight, Brown had himself a very solid game in Tampa’s 30-23 win over the Las Vegas Vipers. Brown finished as the game’s leading tackler with 9 on the day.   Mark Clayton, WR-OKL We are back to receivers once again, looking at former General, Monarch, and Showboat Mark Clayton looked renewed in Oklahoma, catching 5 of 6 targets, scoring his first touchdown as an Outlaw and rackin gup 58 yards against a tough Arizona defense. Ryan Nassib, QB-WSH We cannot go through this list without mentioning at least one of the new QBs across the USFL. Ryan Nassib completed 61.5% of his throws, going 24 of 39 for 244 yards and a touchdown for the Federals, but it was not enough as a late field goal by Memphis got the homestanding Showboats the win.   Devin Funchess, WR-MEM Our last highlighted receiver, the former NFL wideout got his first taste of USFL football for the Showboats in their Week 1 victory over the Federals. Funchess fit in well with the ‘Boats, catching two passes for 15 yards, with one a 7-yard touchdown for the home team.   Pernell McPhee, DE-TBY Finally, we return to Tampa Bay, where the second NFL import defender was among the best players on the field. McPhee played only 41 snaps for the Bandits, but in those snaps he racked up 6 tackles, 2 for a loss, and got his first USFL sack in his first spring game.   Devin Bush wins ROTW with Solid Intro to the USFL There were certainly many other rookies entering their first USFL game with more hype. Heck, there were three on the Express alone, but when Week One was complete, it was Michigan linebacker Devin Bush who walks away with the first Rookie of the Week accolade. Bush got the start on the weak side, and proved he was up to the task, putting together an impressive first outing. Bush finished the day, a triumphant 27-10 win over the Feds, with five tackles, helping the Panthers role in their Week 1 matchup, a 27-point walloping of rival Ohio. Bush was instrumental in reining in Ohio’s Isaiah Pead, and also proved effective in coverage against both TE Jake Sternberger and Pead out of the backfield.   Other rookies who contributed to team wins this week include Jacksonville HB Devin Singletary, who had 9 carries for 37 yards in the Bulls’ big Week 1 victory, and Memphis DE Chase Winovich, who had 3 tackles and a sack against the Feds. Baltimore’s Josh Jacobs could not start his pro career with a win, but contributed 52 yards rushing and another 13 through the air for the Blitz. And what about the triad of LA Express rookies? Well, Kylar Murray struggled somewhat, completing only 11 of 27 passes against the fierce Oakland defense. Nick Bosa had one lone tackle and no sacks, and Hollywood Brown saw action on only 12 plays, and was not targeted in the game.   Mitch Trubisky a Frustrating Topic for Monarch Fans How much is too much? That is the question Charlotte Monarch fans have to be asking about their starting QB. In a 19-16 victory over Orlando, Trubisky threw 4 picks, with 3 going to the same defender, CB Dee Milliner. The 3 rd  year QB managed to get the win, thanks to a late drive that allowed Stephen Earl to kick the game winner with 20 seconds on the clock, but those 4 picks are a huge issue for Trubisky, and for anyone who wants to see the Monarchs do more than go one-and-done in the postseason.   With his season opening 4-pick day, Trubisky has now thrown 42 interceptions in just 32 games. That would likely be a quick ticket to the bench for most quarterbacks, but the kicker is that Trubisky, despite being far too careless with his throws, is still winning games, and when you win games a lot is forgiven. The fact that the Monarchs are 20-12 in those same 32 games means that there is enough happening on the positive side that a QB swap has not seemed necessary. And this week’s game is a perfect example. With 4 picks in the game you would expect the Monarchs to be well out of reach of taking a W for the game, and yet they were tied with the Renegades with time left for a final drive. Trubisky, who should have been rattled after completing more passes to Orlando cornerbacks than to two of his 3 starting receivers, Justin Blackmon or Austin Proehl, but he managed to put together a drive that led to the winning score.   So, is Trubisky bullet proof as long as he can end games with wins, or is the frustration of throwing so many picks going to force a change? It seems unlikely that Coach Mora will move away from Trubisky, now when Tyler Thigpen and T. J. Yates are the two current options behind their interception-prone starter. Thigpen, in his longest run of starts with Atlanta back in 2008, was well underwater with 11 picks to 6 touchdowns, while Yates has yet to get an official start in any USFL game. So it seems that whatever fans may say about Trubisky’s skill as a passer, Coach Mora is committed to using his QB for the long haul, even if it means suffering through another season with the league’s leading source of interceptions at the helm.   Not a good start to the season on the injury front as we already have 2, possibly 3 players who could be placed on IR after only 1 week of action. We also saw 3 back injuries in an opening weekend that had several significant injuries. Orlando WR Jeremy Maclin may have suffered a spinal compression injury after an awkward landing on his head. He is currently listed as out for 12-16 weeks, but could soon be added to the IR. Similarly, Tampa Bay cornerback Trumaine McBride had to be carted off the field in a back brace. The good news is that it appears there was no spinal cord injury and he does have full feeling and some movement in his extremities. The third back injury, Mauler safety Tyvon Branch, proved to be muscular, with no fractures or compression injury to the spinal column, so Branch could be back in action in a month or less.   Of the QBs knocked out of the opening week, only Sam Bradford and Nick Foles are listed in the injury report, with Bradford potentially missing Week 2’s game for Chicago, while Foles is listed as Probable and should get the start. Anthony Allen, who was injured on his first carry for Washington, is listed as doubtful for week 2, meaning more touches for Orleans Darkwa as the Feds take on a very tough Michigan defense.   OUT DE          Duke Ejiofor                JAX       Broken Foot       12-16 Weeks WR         Jeremy Maclin               ORL       Back                     12-16 Weeks CB          Trumaine McBride         TBY        Back                     8-12 Weeks SS           Tyvon Branch                  PIT         Back                     2-4 Weeks TE           Gavin Escobar                 JAX         Collarbone        2-4 Weeks C             A. Q. Shipley                  SEA        Wrist                     2-4 Weeks CB          Chimdi Chekwa              OHI       Abdomen           2-4 Weeks G            Michael Dunn                 LV           Foot                      1-2 Weeks WR         Justin Blackmon             CHA      Hamstring         1-2 Weeks WR         Brandin Cooks                POR      Hand                    1-2 Weeks   DOUBTFUL DT          Aaron Donald            PIT         Eye        HB         Anthony Allen             WSH     Arm WR         Michael Floyd            CHI        Thigh Bruise   QUESTIONABLE QB         Sam Bradford                   CHI        Dislocated Finger OT          Reid Fragel                  OHI       Dislocated Shoulder WR         Taylor Gabriel                 OAK      Concussion OG         Quenton Nelson             OAK      Concussion   Votes Are in , but no Announcement Yet on 2020 Expansion It is now a waiting game for the three remaining expansion hopefuls. Their presentations were made at the league owners’ meeting, the votes have been solicited, and now it is just a matter of when the league reveals the answer. For either the New England Football Group, Hoosier Football Group, and Twin Cities Football Group, as well as pro football fans in all three markets, the delay may seem interminable, but two of the three will be disappointed. There will be only 2 expansion clubs in 2020, the San Antonio Gunslingers and either New England, Indianapolis, or the Twin Cities. That means two very disappointed fan groups, and one very excited one.   The league has not announced when the decision will be made, but it appears clear they are not rushing the announcement. Votes are due in tomorrow, and most, if not all 28 official ballots have likely already been handed in. So now it is just a matter of getting it all legal, setting up the agreements, the expansion fee of $100M to the league, and the official charter for the franchise. We may get a leak ahead of any official announcement, that is the way these things often go, but by all accounts the league should be setting up a press conference to present their 30 th franchise at any point in the next 2 weeks. Soon there will be a 30 th city in the league, a team ready to set up offices, hire staff, and sell tickets. We just don’t know who or where, not yet.   Hansen to be Included in HOF Legacy Dicussion, but Will Electors Give Him Their Votes? The USFL has made it official that the sanctions against former New Jersey General Phil Hansen have been rescinded, the restrictions on his representation by, and connection to the club have been lifted, and it has been confirmed that the Legacy Committee, the group responsible for adding a 6 th  nominee to each year’s Hall of Fame vote, a nominee whose initial 5-year window for consideration has passed, can and will include Hansen in their review this season.   Does that guarantee the league’s 2 nd all-time sack leader, surpassed by Calais Campbell just last year, will be inducted into the Hall this October? No, that cannot be guaranteed. There are certainly plenty who view Hansen’s admission of steroid use to be a dealbreaker, even after the league acknowledged that during the 90’s there was widespread use of both steroids and growth hormones by players. For many, all the stats, all the evidence in favor of Hansen is tainted by the use of performance-enhancing substances. If there are enough on the Legacy Committee to make that case, then we cannot expect Hansen, despite his amazing career, to get the nod this year. What we do know is that he will at least be in the conversation, something the Generals have been pushing for over the past 3 years.   San Antonio Reveals 2020 Uniforms It was not just opening week for the 2019 USFL season, in San Antonio it was officially the first week of the Gunslingers’ final preparations for 2020. They have an office in downtown San Antonio. The lease for the Alamodome is in place, even if repairs on the stadium are not yet completed, and while season tickets for 2020 will not go on sale until September, the owners are putting the pieces in place. This week on more piece was revealed as the Gunslingers, along with Under Armour, and several league representatives, presented the inaugural 2020 uniforms for the reborn Gunslingers. As expected, there are a lot of nods to the past in the look, starting with the color scheme, held over not only from the short-lived 1987 Gunslingers, but the full history of USFL football in the city, as the Kelly green, royal blue, and black combination was also used by the Texas Outlaws before they were sold and the team moved to OK city. The team will return to the traditional green helmet with royal blue jersey. They will have a 2-stripe pattern on the sleeves, as they did back in 1987, though there will also be a third stripe, forming the iconic shape of the Alamo into the sleeve pattern. The pants will also feature a 2-stripe pattern, with a small star and a subtle motif of a diamond with two small circles to either side, as seen in the new secondary and tertiary logos, also revealed this week. The primary uniforms are very much an homage to the long history of USFL football in the city, with blue and white sets and blue and white pants as well. The team also released two alternate uniforms, the first being a throwback to the 1987 Gunslingers who lasted one season before financial concerns forced a merger with the original Oklahoma Outlaws. The uniform will feature the original 1987 Gunslinger logo and the silver pants that were worn only that first season.   The second alternate, called the “Black Powder” alternate, emphasizes black as a team color. With the primary uniforms almost entirely bereft of any black, even using white facemasks on the helmets, this alternate uniform goes full force into the use of the color. The team will wear a black helmet with black facemask, a black jersey with white piping and green, white, and blue striping, featuring green numbers with a white outline. The uniform also features black socks and a black pant set, with the 2-stripe green/blue combo outlined in white. This early in the planning, there is, of course, no schedule yet for which uniforms will be worn for which games, and since San Antonio will play in a dome, we could see the all black look against nearly anyone, though a little birdie has informed us that the team is very much interested in having them on hand if the Oklahoma Outlaws are on the home schedule for San Antonio in the 2020 season, a bit of oneupmanship as Oklahoma chose black as their dominant color when they relocated from San Antonio.   A lot to look forward to in Week 2 as quite a few teams get their home opener and 5 divisional matchups spice up the schedule of games. We start on Friday with a pair of intriguing games as Washington heads to Michigan, looking to notch their first win but playing a very tough Panther defense. Then it is Oklahoma headed into Dallas as the Roughnecks start the season with back-to-back divisional home games.   On Saturday, we start the early games with a real test for the New Orleans Breakers. Geno Smith is expected to get his first start against an Oakland team that shut out LA in Week 1. At 4pm that LA team will likely not be facing their former QB as Sam Bradford could be held out of Chicago’s home opener after getting dinged up in Week 1. We also have Arizona headed to Portland, where we will see if the Wranglers can handle playing in the rain. Our night games include a Central Division matchup as the Skyhawks and Glory face off in Columbus. The nightcap is a Pacific matchup as the Dragons head to San Diego in a battle of 1-0 clubs.   Sunday kicks off with New Jersey at Baltimore in the national broadcast on ABC, while the two Fox regional games feature Charlotte traveling up to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay visiting Houston. At 4pm it is Atlanta in Las Veggas and Orlando traveling to Denver, where Josh Allen makes his debut at home for the Gold. Finally, the night game is a good one, with the Worlds Greatest Tailgate as Memphis travels to Birmingham for a battle of 1-0 Southern teams. The smokers will have been running since early in the morning, so do not pass up that tailgate BBQ.   Friday @ 7pm ET             Washington (0-1) @ Michigan (1-0)               NBC Friday @ 9:30pm ET        Oklahoma (0-1) @ Dallas (1-0)                       FOX   Saturday @ 12pm ET    Pittsburgh (0-1) @ Jacksonville (1-0)            ABC Saturday @ 12pm ET     Oakland (1-0) @ New Orleans (0-1)              FOX Saturday @ 4pm ET       Los Angeles (0-1) @ Chicago (1-0)                  ABC Saturday @ 4pm ET       Arizona (1-0) @ Portland (0-1)                         FOX Saturday @ 7pm ET       St. Louis (1-0) @ Ohio (0-1)                              NBC Saturday @ 9pm ET     Seattle (1-0) @ San Diego (1-0)                       ESPN/EFN   Sunday @ 12pm ET      New Jersey (0-1) @ Baltimore (0-1)               ABC Sunday @ 12pm ET      Charlotte (1-0) @ Philadelphia (0-1)                FOX Regional Sunday @ 12pm ET        Tampa Bay (1-0) @ Houston (1-0)                   FOX Regional Sunday @ 4pm ET          Atlanta (0-1) @ Las Vegas (0-1)                        ABC Sunday @ 4pm ET          Orlando (0-1) @ Denver (1-0)                         FOX Sunday @ 8pm ET       Memphis (1-0) @ Birmingham (1-0)                 ESPN/EFN

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: We open the season with a surprising POTW as Teddy Bridgewater stepped up with 5 touchdowns (3 passing, 2 rushing) and a huge offensive day for the Jacksonville Bulls. After an offseason that saw the Bulls pursue other QB options, finally signing former NFL Dolphin QB Ryan Tannehill just 2 weeks ago, it was the incumbent who stepped up and proved he could be very successful in the right situation.

Here we go, predictions, previews, positives and negatives for all 28 teams. It is all right here as we prepare for Week 1 action. Who made the most of the offseason? Who is on the way up and who is possibly struggling after a rough offseason? We will break down the players to watch, the moves that could determine the season, and make all our picks for the divisions, the playoffs, and the league awards. It is all right here, and it is all a total guess. Yup, you know by now that we do not endorse betting the ranch on anything we say. We are often wrong, and teams surprise us every single year. So, while we think we have done our best to look into the crystal ball, we recommend you take a cynical stance on any prediction we might make. That said, let’s get to it.   Ten Immediate Impact Players for 2019 As we look ahead to the USFL’s 37 th season, one of the stories we know we will be following is how new acquisitions impact their teams, from rookies who impress from Day 1 to free agents and NFL imports who slot right in and improve their teams beyond expectations, new seasons provide opportunities for players to stand up and be counted. As we look at all the moves, from the first free trade of the offseason to the final draft pick signing or the recent NFL additions, more than 200 new players are found on USFL rosters, and while some may not get a chance to impress in the opening weeks, and others may find themselves struggling to maintain their roster spots, we expect that there will be some who make their GMs look like geniuses for signing them. Here is our pick of 10 players we think we will be hearing from this year, players who could well move the needle on their team’s success this season.   10- Blake Martinez, LB-LV (NFL Import) Two new Vipers made our list this year, one on offense and one on defense. The Vipers, in our opinion, had one of the better NFL signings in LB Blake Martinez. This is a player who had over 140 tackles in each of the past two seasons with the NFL Packers. He steps into the Vegas LB group as the starting MLB, with DeAndre Levy and Nate Irving flanking him. We think he has a shot at being a Top 5 tackler in his new role with the Vipers.   9- Nick Bosa, DE-LA (Rookie) We must be excited about Bosa’s potential if we are making him the cover boy for our USFL Draft Report. The truth is that we think LA will be a huge story all year, and while QB Kyler Murray may struggle to pick up the pro game, that transition is much easier for an edge rusher who will have one job only, get to the QB.   8- Bud Dupree, DE-ARZ (NFL Import) Dupree showed some flashes in the NFL, but now he is in a position that will open up options for him. With Calais Campbell absorbing most of the double teams, Dupree could well see his opportunities for QB sacks open wide up, and we well could see something akin to the Campbell-Moats double 20-sack season of 2017.   7- Aaron Dobson, WR-LV (Free Agent) Las Vegas’s other big signing is a receiver who just gets open. With over 100 receptions each of the past 3 years, that is just fact at this point. Now, he will have a new system to learn and a new QB in Matt McGloin to build rapport with, but we think that the combo of McGloin to Dobson is very likely one that could blossom by midseason.   6- Clay Matthews, LB-DAL (Free Agent) Dallas needed a leader on defense. Matthews needed out of what he saw as a toxic culture in LA, so, is this a match that will work? Well, we know that Matthews has talent, with 100+ tackles for 9 straight seasons, the proof is there. But, will Dallas be a good fit for him?   5- Kyler Murray, QB-LA (Rookie) No pressure, Kyler, but more or less the entire franchise is in your hands. What LA did this offseason, particularly in trading away Sam Bradford, along with a good number of future draft picks, is to swing for the fences, but sometimes those swings produce huge strikeouts. Murray cannot afford to swing and miss.   4- Brian Orakpo, LB-PIT (Free Agent) Orakpo left Tampa Bay after season after season of frustration as his outstanding individual effort did not get seconded by a defense around him that could hold its water. Now, in Pittsburgh, there is more talent, more focus, and a coach in Vic Fangio who understands how to turn defensive talent into results.   3-Josh Jacobs, HB-BAL (Rookie) Very often a big-name back like Jacobs will end up with a team that has few other weapons on offense. That is certainly not the case with the Blitz trading to get the rights to Jacobs. In the Blitz, Jacobs has an offense that is prolific in the passing game, but needed a solid 3-down runner to help keep pressure off their QB. Now, with Jacobs in the fold, defenses facing the Blitz will simply have to prepare for a broader range of possibilities. Good for Jacobs, good for Roethlisberger, and good for the Blitz offense in general.   2- Ryan Nassib, QB-WSH (Free Agent) No quarterback comes to a new team with a guarantee, but in what we saw of Nassib last year, there certainly seems to be a pretty good chance that the Federals have found themselves a decade-long franchise QB. It will be an adjustment of styles from what David Garrard offered, but if Coach Bradley can cater the offense to Nassib’s strengths (accuracy, decision making, and mid-range targets), Washington could be set at QB for quite a while.   1-Calais Campbell, DE-ARZ (Trade) There is no way Campbell’s production in Arizona won’t be a story all season long, no matter what happens. We tend to think he will have a career year, which is a lot considering the career he has had so far. We just think he has more talent around him, will be playing with a lead more often, which means more straight-up pass rush focus, and we could see him reaching for his own record. He may not again be expected to finish the year with 100 tackles, like in Orlando, but 30 sacks, that may well be a target for the future Hall of Famer.   Taking the Helm: New USFL QBs Under Pressure We have 10 new quarterbacks in a league of 28 teams, that means more than a third of all teams are rolling the dice with someone new under center. That can be a gamble, the kind of gamble that can lead a coach towards a Coach of the Year award or towards a pink slip on Black Monday. So, who are the new signal callers across the league, which are under pressure right away, and which are in the best position for early success. We took all 10 QBs and put them in one of three categories: Sitting Pretty, Control their Fate, and Hoping for Help. Here is our assessment of all ten in these three categories.   SITTING PRETTY San Diego—Christian Ponder Technically a new starter this year, since he did not begin the 2018 season as the starter, Ponder is in a very solid position after putting up great numbers last year, leading San Diego to a 9-3 record and a home playoff win, and surrounded by talent like WRs Marques Colston, Nick Toon, and DeVante Parker, and a run game led by Ryan Williams.   Washington—Ryan Nassib Unlike Ponder, Nassib comes to a new team this year, but the Feds are not a team sitting at 2 or 3 wins last season and desperate for talent. They were 9-7 and have a lot to offer Nassib to make him successful, from strong outside receivers in Keenan Allen and Brandon LaFell, to newly added TE Rob Housler, Nassib will not lack for weapons in the passing game. It may take a few games for him to build rapport, but we think the situation is a very good one for him to find that success quickly.   New Orleans—Geno Smith You are puzzled. What makes us think that Geno Smith is in a solid spot? After all, he fizzled out quickly with the NFL Jets, failed to find success when he moved to the Giants and now joins the Breakers with no offseason rest. Yes, all true, and all could make it a tough transition, but look at what Smith inherits in New Orleans, an offense that averaged nearly 30 points a game last year, has one of the league’s best receivers in Jordy Nelson, a solid 2 nd  option in Kenny Britt, a really strong slot receiver in Tyler Lockett, and the best pass-catching TE in the league in Coby Fleener. What more could a QB need to be successful? How about an All-USFL left tackle like Willie Colon? Yup, he has that too.   CONTROL THEIR FATE Denver—Josh Allen After sitting for his rookie season, the keys to the Gold were handed to Allen this offseason. Word is he has been working all offseason with Jordan Palmer to improve his weaknesses, and he has an offense that will not demand that he win single-handedly. He has reliable receivers in Golden Tate and Michael Crabtree. The Gold also landed a very nice security blanket in TE T. J. Hockenson, and he has Ryan Clady defending his blind side. So, with all that, it really is up to Allen to prove his detractors wrong and show that he can go from Jr. College to Wyoming to a starting position in Denver.   Las Vegas—Matt McGloin The only reason we think McGloin is here and not in the “Sitting Pretty” group is because as good as his 2018 season was in Seattle, he did spend his first five seasons as a backup, which generally does not happen if a player has the stuff. There are some who think last season was a fluke and McGloin will be at best a serviceable bridge QB until Vegas finds a better option. Viper management and Head Coach Rick Neuheisel believe more is possible, but McGloin will still need to win over many.   Los Angeles—Kyler Murray This status is about all any rookie QB can hope for. So many questions, so many possible ways for either him or others around him to screw up his head space. It is just not easy to step from college to the pros and be immediately successful. Even some of the greats needed 1-2 bad years under their belt before the game really started to slow down for them. Honestly, if we expect Murray to immediately make LA a contender, we are setting him up for failure. A solid year, a growth year, and signs of what is to come should be the hope.   HOPING FOR HELP Chicago—Sam Bradford We like Bradford, really, we do, but in stints with both the Generals and the Express he has struggled to put together complete seasons. His best years were early on in New Jersey, but in LA he struggled to find receivers and to make plays on key downs. With the Machine, he may find the same issues, especially with Aaron Dobson no longer there to reliably be available on 3 rd  down. The Machine will still be a run-first club, but Bradford will need to get more out of Michael Floyd, Kenny Golladay and Will Fuller if he wants to change his image as a serviceable, but not a contending QB.   Dallas—Josh Freeman Freeman began last season as the starter in St. Louis, got benched, and watched as the Skyhawks fell in love with Lamar Jackson. By season’s end he was in Dallas, trying to play with little to no preparation. He will be in a better situation this year, but Dallas is not a particularly talented offense, and Freeman may find he just does not have the tools he needs to return to his 2012 MVP status.   Jacksonville—Teddy Bridgewater/Jeff Tannehill The fact that we are listing 2 different QBs here tells you all you need to know about the Bulls’ QB situation. Both Bridgewater and Tannehill are viewed as renovation projects. The Bulls got both relatively cheap (for former NFL starters) and their hope has to be that one of them proves them right. But we have to say, we are not all that excited about the weapons they have to work with, receivers Mike Williams, Equanimeous St. Brown, and Tajae Sharpe are not exactly a killer trio that defenses cannot handle. Tight end Gavin Escobar is adequate, but hardly a game breaker, and the line still has some issues, particularly at center and right guard. So, is either QB good enough to find success with that crew in support?   St. Louis—Lamar Jackson We get why fans in St. Louis are excited about Jackson and the 2019 offense. We saw some really impressive flashes last year, and Jackson was just so much more dynamic in and out of the pocket than Freeman had been, but is St. Louis depending too much on their young QB? They did very little to improve their roster this year. We like the addition of HB David Montgomery in the draft, and Stevie Johnson is still a solid target, but there is not a lot behind him in the receiver group and TE Rob Gronkowski has simply not produced as expected since coming over from the Wranglers.   Five 2nd Year Players to Watch Out For Preseason is a time when we tend to focus on the new arrivals, free agents, and rookies, but there is another group who can be huge for a team’s progress, second year players. These are the members of the prior year’s rookie class who now take on a bigger role, find their groove, or just mature into valuable contributors. We ran through the Draft Class of 2018 and we think we have found five players who are ready to emerge in their second year. Some were solid last year and could become special this season, others did not have much of a chance to shine last year but now find themselves in a position to prove their worth. So, here are five 2 nd  year players to keep watch on this year, because we think they could break out.   LB Roquan Smith (STL) 2018 Stats: 92 Tackles, 2 Sacks, 1 FF Absolutely nothing wrong with 92 tackles from a rookie, and the Skyhawks had to be overjoyed that Smith was able to do so much in his first year, but he was playing mostly on instinct. Now, with a full offseason of training and coaching he could easily become a 100-tackle guy, and St. Louis is also hoping to have him take on a larger role as a pass rusher.   OG Quenton Nelson (OAK) 2018 Stats: 16 starts, 41 pancakes, 0 sacks allowed There is not much more you can ask from a guard than to have 16 starts and not give up a single sack, but while Nelson was certainly one of the better first year players in 2018, the Invaders run game did not get where they wanted it, and so they are hoping that Nelson can expand his repertoire and become a more dynamic run blocker in 2019.   LB Tremaine Edmunds (WSH) 2018 Stats: 1 start, 12 tackles, 1 sack, 1 FF Edwards played mostly on special teams as a rookie, with only 1 start. That will not be the case in 2019, where Edwards is penciled in to replace Shawne Merriman as the starting MLB. Those are big shoes to fill, and there will certainly be some growing pains, but Edwards’s aggressive and athletic style could be a good fit for Gus Bradley’s defense.   WR Calvin Ridley (MGN) 2018 Stats: 49 receptions, 543 yards, 5 TDs Ridley saw action in all 16 games last year, and his numbers were very solid, but this season we expect to see him take a step up as he takes on the swing role for all 3 receiver positions. There is even a chance he will take over for oft-injured slot receiver Jerrel Jernigan.   TE Mark Andrews (OKL) 2018 Stats: 22 receptions, 155 yards, 1 TD Andrews saw limited action behind Julius Thomas last season, but Coach Stoops has already indicated that Andrews will see a larger snap count, more starts, more 3 rd downs, and a lot more targets. We could easily see Andrews jump from 22 receptions to 50, 60 or more in Stoops’s offense.   Are you ready to get into the weeds with all 28 teams? So much news, so many storylines, and so much potential, there is a lot to talk about. We are going to divide the 28 USFL teams by their 6 divisions, give you a short division projection and then talk up each team, its potential, strengths, weaknesses, and biggest offseason story. We will finish up each team assessment with our ceiling and basement for each team based on their roster, coaching, and overall vibe. So, here we go, a deep dive into all 28 clubs as we prepare for this week’s season openers.   Always a tough division to call, the NE has not had a repeat champion since 2013-2014 (Stars), and this year looks like it could be another scramble with a lot of teams looking solid, but not dominant once again. We think Philadelphia will be improved, Washington could also take a step forward with Ryan Nassib at QB, and Baltimore added a new wrinkle in HB Josh Jacobs, so, who will take it? Our prediction is parity:   New Jersey   10-6* Philadelphia    9-7* Washington    9-7* Baltimore         7-9 Pittsburgh       7-9   BALTIMORE BLITZ Head Coach:  Jim Caldwell 2018 Record:  6-10 (5 th in NE)   Biggest Offseason Story:  While many expected the defense to be the focus of the offseason, the biggest story had to be the pick-for-pick swap of Territorial Draft number ones with Birmingham, and the subsequent selection and signing of Alabama tailback Josh Jacobs. Jacobs was the clear number one back in the draft and his presence in the Blitz backfield could dramatically alter the Baltimore offense, freeing up receivers, forcing safeties to play closer to the line, and keeping pressure off Roethlisberger. Will that improve their defense? Well, if they can possess the ball more, have fewer 3-and-outs, and play with a lead more often, yes, it actually can.   Biggest Strength:  As intriguing as the Jacobs signing is, the strength remains the passing game, led by Big Ben with a solid 4-man receiver group of Darrius Heyward-Bey, Brian Hartline, TE C. J. Uzomah, and newly acquired 100-reception receiver Denarius Moore. Adding Moore means that Baltimore can now rotate receivers situationally while also creating mismatches inside and outside. This offense could now be special with this group plus Jacobs in the fold.   Biggest Weakness:  We want to say “defense” in general, but it is more accurate to say that the nickel defense is the issue. Baltimore had huge issues getting off the field on third down last year, and that was largely because the nickel package could not pressure the QB or cover receivers beyond the initial 3 seconds of a play. Beyond Jabari Greer the CB group is suspect, there is a rookie in Nasir Adderley at Strong Safety, Eric Weddle is not the greatest cover safety in the FS spot, and the 3-man line of DE’s Da’Quon Bowers and Olivier Vernon and DT Angelo Blackson just does not pose enough of a threat without committing blitzers.   Outlook:  The offense could be special, and we are all excited to see Josh Jacobs mixed in, but it just does not look like the Blitz have done enough to improve on defense. This could mean a lot of shootouts and “who has the ball last” games, but could also mean a lot of playing from behind, which could limit the benefit of having a runner like Jacobs on the squad.   Predicted Finish:  We do think that if the Blitz offense is as strong as it could be, Baltimore could surprise, so we are putting their ceiling at 11 wins, with a floor of 5 wins. Where do we think they will fall, well, 7-9 feels just about right to us.   NEW JERSEY GENERALS Head Coach: Norv Turner 2018 Record: 9-6-1 (1 st in NE)   Biggest Offseason Story: The defending NE Division champs very much held serve this offseason, without any major signings, deals, or even big name draft picks. Is that enough in such a tight division? The loss of Chase Blackburn will hurt, even with a quality addition like Akeem Ayers coming to the squad. Honestly, when we look at the roster, the key may well be whether 2 nd  year MLB Matt Milano can truly take over for Blackburn as the QB of the defense. He is a high motor guy, but does he have the vision to make the right adjustments at the line?   Biggest Strength: You might expect us to focus on MJD, but as good as Jones-Drew is, when we look at the Generals’ roster, it is the cornerback group that stands out. Aqib Talib is one of the true shut down corners in the league, and if you try to throw to the other side you have Devin McCourty, who is a ballhawking corner who has the make-up speed to recover if he misreads a route. The nickel and dime slots are also solid with Rashard Robinson and Isaac Yladom more than capable of playing both effective zone coverage and strong bump & run on the slot receiver. This is a tough group to break down, and that helps Aaron Kampman and Vic Beasley find time to reach the QB.   Biggest Weakness: Coach Turner seems to be satisfied with his receiving group, but outside of OBJ, we are not seeing what he sees. Flanker Muhamed Sanu has good hands but struggles to find space, and slot receiver Zay Jones has found it difficult to make catches in traffic. TE John Carlson is serviceable but hardly a game breaker. We are honestly surprised New Jersey did not go after Denarius Moore, Aaron Dobson, or even a top rookie receiver in the draft, landing only T-draft “afterthought” Jeff Smith from BC.   Outlook: Despite our concern about their receivers, the Generals have a pretty solid squad top to bottom. They likely will play a conservative offensive game, focused on running the ball and creating makeable 3 rd  downs, while the defense focuses on stuffing the run and keeping passing in front of them. That can win you a lot of games, but as we saw in the Eastern Title Game against Houston, it may not be enough to beat a truly talented team.   Predicted Finish: We think the NE Division is too balanced for New Jersey to rattle off 12 or 13 wins, so we are going to say 11 wins is the cap, with a basement of perhaps 8 games, because they are too talented to drop below .500, at least without major injury issues. We have picked them to win the division again, but it will be a dogfight that has them barely overtaking Washington and Philadelphia at 10-6.   PHILADELPHIA STARS Head Coach: Jim Harbaugh 2018 Record: 7-9 (4 th in NE)   Biggest Offseason Story: Another team that largely focused on retaining talent, Philadelphia did not make any splashy moves, but when we look over their roster for 2019, we do notice two signings that could produce results, both on defense with the additions of MLB Channing Crowder and safety Ha Ha Clinton Dix. Both will start from Day 1, and both will be upgrades as the Stars look to follow the defensive pathway to victories. Crowder’s arrival allows Coach Harbaugh to move Kirk Morrison to the strong side as a run-stuffing specialist. This will not be the fastest LB group in the league, but it may be one of the best tackling threesomes in the league.   Biggest Strength: No question, it is the O-line. With every single member of the Star’s O-line graded at a B+ or better by Athlon, who we trust in these matters, there is not a weak link, and this is a group that not only keeps Matt Gutierrez in a clean pocket, but they are outstanding in creating quick gaps in the line, gaps that Derrick Henry can exploit to great effect. They say games are won in the trenches, and the Stars’ line regularly wins the battles that win the war.   Biggest Weakness: Depth, simple as that. We saw what happened when Derrick Henry went down last year. Zac Stacy just could not substitute. We think the same is true with backup QB P. J. Walker, any receiver outside of the starting 2, and all across the defense. This is a team that is deeply impacted by almost any injuries, and that is a problem when we know that a USFL season is rarely injury-free.   Outlook: It is hard to picture Philadelphia winning the division, but easy to see them in a Wild Card hunt, especially if they can stay healthy. Outside of Henry, we don’t see a lot of All-USFL performers, but what we see is a well-coached, cohesive, and veteran squad that knows how to avoid self-harm and force other teams to play mistake free football to beat them.   Predicted Finish: We think Philadelphia tops out at 10 wins, and, again, if they stay healthy, likely won’t dip below 7 wins, so we are saying 9-7 with a Wild Card game in the works. PITTSBURGH MAULERS Head Coach: Vic Fangio 2018 Record: 8-8 (3 rd in NE)   Biggest Offseason Story: No team did a better job of dealing with offseason departures than the Maulers. They lost Paul Posluszny and Victor Cruz, but between the NFL import of speedy Jarvis Landry and the brilliant signing of Bryan Orakpo, the Maulers have not only filled those roster spots, but possibly improved in both cases. We love the Orakpo signing, especially when the athletic and whip-smart LB can stand behind Aaron Donald and get free pathways into the backfield. That is going to be fun to watch.   Biggest Strength: Straight up the middle on that defense. You start with Donald and Gabe Wright in the center of the line, place Orakpo behind them, and then follow up with the duo of Tyvon Branch and Robert Sands at safety and you have just a gauntlet of big hitters, smart players, and a heck of a lot of natural talent to get past. The Maulers are not quite as talented on the fringe, but their middle can basically dominate anything between the two sets of hashmarks.   Biggest Weakness: As strong as the middle is on defense, it may well be the biggest weakness on offense. Vandervelde, Caldwell, and Ehinger are not a particularly effective guard-center-guard combo, not particularly athletic in the run game, and too predictable in protection. The HB duo of Sony Michel and Marcus Lattimore are also not particularly effective on the inside, and TE Anthony Hill, while a solid blocker, is not a dynamic weapon over the middle. Pittsburgh has to live on the outside, with Thielen and Landry, and a run game overdependent on pitches, sweeps, screens and swing routes. That is a concern in a division with some solid outside defenders.   Outlook: More and more it looks like the offensive explosion that produced 13 wins in 2015 is not returning. Pittsburgh, like so many NE Division clubs, needs to play close games, grind out wins, and keep scores under 20-24 points to have a chance. That is a tough thing to do regularly, especially when playing teams from other divisions who don’t share that philosophy.   Predicted Finish: We picked the Maulers to bring up the rear at 7-9, and that may actually be their cap. Could they reach .500, sure, if all goes well, but can then surprise us and go 11-5? We don’t think so. More likely they surprise us in a bad way and finish 3-13.   WASHINGTON FEDERALS Head Coach: Gus Bradley 2018 Record: 9-7 (2 nd in NE)   Biggest Offseason Story: Winning the Ryan Nassib derby. The Feds outbid, outwooed and outhustled the Breakers, Machine, Vipers and maybe 3-4 other teams to land the very coveted Arizona QB. They now feel like they could again be set at the position for another decade. Nassib is very different from David Garrard, so the offense may look quite different this year, but with the talent around him, particularly out wide, this could be a very good match.   Biggest Strength: The receiver group is deep, fast, and good. It starts with a very dynamic and polished pair of starters in Keenan Allen and Brandon LaFell. Add in slot receiver Tyreek Hill, who is one of the fastest men in the league, and who may see more outside snaps this year, and you have a very strong trio. But it does not end there. In Jalen Saunders and rookie Kavontae Turpin you have more speed, more quickness, and some great YAC moves. And while the loss of Kellen Davis inside is tough, we love that Washington recognized the need to have that inside option and signed former Panther Rob Housler. He is not as dynamic as Davis was, but he is a reliable safety valve for Nassib.   Biggest Weakness: Defensive playmaking. While we like the front 4 quite a bit, behind them there are just not many players capable of turning an offensive mistake into a takeaway or a defensive score. They have an unproven MLB in Tremaine Edwards, slower outside backers in Ogletree and Jackson, and both safeties (Kyshoen Jarrett and Adrian Amos) are mid-grade at best in the league. The lack of defensive dynamism could be a huge issue for the Feds this year.   Outlook: Despite our concerns about the Federals’ back 7 on defense, we still think that they are one of the better teams in the division, helped by the arrival of Nassib. We are concerned that we are off base here and Washington could backslide, but our gut tells us they will again be in that 9-10 win range and that should get them a playoff spot (though it did not last year.)   Predicted Finish: Washington is another team we think caps out at around 10 wins, maybe 11 if Nassib really gets going. But they do have greater potential to struggle on defense, so that could drop them into the 5-6 win range. We are being optimistic, so we have them at 9-7 and this time that gets them a Wild Card.   With three 10-loss teams, the SE is viewed as one of the league’s weaker divisions, but both Atlanta and Charlotte were solid clubs last year. Will the gap close between them and the three Florida clubs? Hard to see it, though we do like some of the changes made. It looks to us like Orlando has taken a big hit this offseason, Jacksonville needs to solve their QB situation, and Tampa Bay hired an offensive coach to fix a pretty terrible defense, one that also lost their best player in Bryan Orakpo. Our prediction: Another clear Top v. Bottom split.   Atlanta             9-7* Charlotte          9-7 Jacksonville     5-11 Tampa Bay      5-11 Orlando           5-11   ATLANTA FIRE Head Coach: Bruce Arians 2018 Record: 10-6 (1 st in SE)   Biggest Offseason Story: Fire fans are still trying to figure out their team’s offseason. The Fire lose 3 starters on their D-line and essentially don’t do anything about it. That has fans worried. Chris Kelsay, Sylvester Williams, and Nick Fairley are essentially being replaced by their backups, Sione Pouha, Jarron Gilbert, and Mario Edwards. That feels like a major downgrade on a club that is not dominant elsewhere.   Biggest Strength: The one group we are not worried about in Atlanta is the LB group. The three-man wrecking crew of Kuechley inside and Dannell Ellerbe and Patrick Willis outside is aggressive, fast, and they tackle well. They may need to do even more this year with the unproven D-line, but this is a group that is trouble for offenses.   Biggest Weakness:  Line play. We are concerned about the D-line, yes, but the O-line is also a possible issue. Despite the success the offense had last year, this is not a line that consistently wins battles, and it can be overpowered by better edge rushers, which must make Aaron Murray a bit nervous.   Outlook: In any other division we might be picking Atlanta to go 8-8 and finish third, but in the Southeast, they are still perhaps the most likely team to take the division. Can they do anything with that or will they be one and done in the playoffs? That is a very valid question for a team that does feels weaker now than 6 months ago.   Predicted Finish: While we pick Atlanta to go 10-6 and win the division, if any of the Florida teams can put the pieces together, we could also imagine them slipping quite a bit. We think 11 wins is possible, but so is 5, and that should worry Coach Arians.   CHARLOTTE MONARCHS Head Coach: Jim Mora Jr.   2018 Record: 9-7 (2 nd in SE)   Biggest Offseason Story: Unlike most teams, the big story this offseason for Charlotte was not player acquisition but cap space management. The Monarchs simply did not have money available, and unlike some teams, they did not effectively alter current contracts to build more. They found enough to sign Latavious Murray, but at a lower salary than NFL import (and now export) Adrian Peterson, so basically, they just gave Murray some of Peterson’s money. Beyond that, the moves were largely trying to stand pat, and that does not seem like a winning formula.   Biggest Strength: Is it a problem that we identify only one half of the O-line as the strength of an entire team? There is no question that the combination of center Mike Pouncey, right guard Jonathan Cooper, and right tackle Kelvin Beachem is as good as you will find in the league, but that is not even an entire line. So, while Nick Chubb will love running over the right side, what happens if he wants to go to the left? And can that side of the line help shift defensive pressure enough to allow Trubisky a solid pocket?   Biggest Weakness: If there is one thing that sunk the Monarchs last year, it was the tendency by their QB to make throws he knew were too risky. Mitch Trubisky has thrown 47 picks in his first two years in the league, and while Charlotte has overcome them to have back-to-back playoff seasons, it has to be a concern for them. You just cannot give other teams the momentum and the field position that a pick so often does. If the Monarchs’ coaches cannot coach that tendency out of their QB, they may have to look for another option at the position.   Outlook: While there are individual players on the Monarchs who are special, players like HB Nick Chubb, center Mike Pouncey, MLB Rolando McClain and DE Chandler Jones, they are not backed up well enough by other talented players to become a real force. Yes, this Charlotte team is talented enough to knock off many sub-.500 teams, but that won’t get you to a Summer Bowl, and likely not even to a Conference Title Game either.   Predicted Finish:  We have Charlotte finishing at 9-7 and losing a tie-breaker to Atlanta. But here is the thing. If Mitch Trubisky can cut his picks from 24 to 16 (still bad, but not horrid) then the Monarchs could win 11 games. But if he cannot, and if any of the Florida teams is improved this year, then Charlotte, like Atlanta could be on the outside looking in come playoff time.     JACKSONVILLE BULLS Head Coach: Brian Flores 2018 Record: 4-12 (4 th in SE)   Biggest Offseason Story: The biggest story for Jacksonville actually happened before the offseason officially began when the club decided they would move on from Robert Griffin III and not re-sign the talented, but oft-injured QB. It seemed clear that Coach Flores was not excited by the prospect of a running QB who just could not consistently operate a pocket-offense. Despite the struggles from NFL import Teddy Bridgewater last year, the Bulls let Griffin go. He would eventually end up back in the NFL with the Ravens, and after pursuing a 2 nd  option in Ryan Nassib (and to a lesser extent Matt McGloin) they brought in Ryan Tannehill from the NFL just 2 weeks ago. They now have 2 NFL QB reclamation projects, with the hope being that one of them will prove to be effective in a more traditional offense.   Biggest Strength: The defensive front 7 is the key to the Bulls’ defense and maybe their season. The three-man line of Robert Ayers, Kedric Gholston, and Barkevious Mingo can be disruptive at the line, can penetrate, and can disrupt running lanes. Behind them MLBs Sean Lee and Alex Anzelone are more than happy to take on the backs who make it out of the backfield, freeing up Jordan Hicks and Jarret Johnson on the outside to play coverage or pressure the QB. That is a nice start to a very solid defense.   Biggest Weakness: While we have criticisms of the secondary (the reason Jacksonville is not a Top 5 defense), the bigger issue is an offense that simply cannot sustain drives or create enough big plays. Matt Jones is a serviceable halfback, but not a guy who will bust a lot of 20-yard plays. Jacksonville hopes the addition of HB Devin Singletary will add a bit more of that big play capacity. The receiving corps is also equally unintimidating. Mike Williams leads a group that is largely unknown and largely unimpressive. There just is not enough bang for the buck with the group, requiring long drives and sustained possession rather than the very necessary occasional quick strike.   Outlook: Of the division’s 3 Florida clubs, the Bulls are perhaps closer than the other two, at least on defense, but unless they can get more out of their offensive squad, it is hard to picture this team surpassing .500. It may require that they spend a bit, perhaps lose a good player, to make a deal to get a true playmaker on offense or they again could be looking at 10 losses.   Predicted Finish: We have all 3 Florida clubs sitting at 5-11 in our divisional pick. We think Jacksonville could do better, but if the offense is as troubled as we think, then a lot of 17-13 losses seem to be on the menu. An 8-8 season would have to be considered a success, while anything below 6 wins would be trouble for Coach Flores.   ORLANDO RENEGADES Head Coach: Ron Rivera (1 st Yr) 2018 Record: 6-10 (3 rd in SE)   Biggest Offseason Story: This one is obvious, right? The most talented player on the team, perhaps the most talented player in the entire league over the past decade declared he had had enough of mediocrity and demanded a trade to a contender. He got his wish, as Calais Campbell joins the Arizona Wranglers. So what does that mean for Orlando? Well, it means they need to reimagine what kind of team they are. Bring in a new head coach in Ron Rivera, perhaps focus on more offensive explosiveness with Russell Wilson and Brashad Perriman, and hope the defense can work more as a team with others stepping up. Short term, this may be rough, but give Rivera another year and some talent added to the roster, and it may help the Renegades overcome their “underachiever” culture.   Biggest Strength: Chunk play capacity. Orlando does not have a solid 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust power game, not with Knile Davis and Rashad Jennings as their backs, but with those two in the backfield, and a pretty dynamic receiver group (Perriman, Bowe, Maclin and TE Njoku), all led by an elusive and accurate QB in Russell Wilson, this is an Orlando offense that could and should be looking for big plays regularly. Get the backs in space with pitches, screens and swing passes, open up single coverage for the receivers, and you could see a team that is the exact opposite of what the Bulls offer, a team built to put up yards in chunks and have a lot of 3-6 play drives.   Biggest Weakness: Defensive fortitude. We wanted to highlight the LB group as particularly problematic, but the real issue is that if Orlando does become a quick-strike offense, can this defense hold up if the opposition get the ball for 33-38 minutes per game? That seems unlikely. We will see if the combo of rookie Montez Sweat and veteran Arthur Moats can get to the QB, but even if they can, the defense of the Renegades may still struggle to keep teams from slowly moving down the field and owning the clock. The big worry is that by the 4 th  quarter they may well have played too many downs and be wearing down, allowing for a lot of late comebacks.   Outlook: There were mixed feelings about the Renegades in our bullpen. Some thought the style of offense they have the potential to create could be a real problem for defenses in their division, and give them a shot at 10 wins, others worry that the defense is just not stalwart enough and think 5 wins is where they end up. So, while we say they will be a 5-11 team, they are on our radar as a possible surprise team this year.   Predicted Finish: We just laid this out for you, that there is potential here for the offense to carry Orlando to a winning record, but there is also potential for them to just wear down on defense and lose a lot of late leads. We tend to lean towards the more conservative estimation of their abilities and that means 5-11 along with the Bulls and Bandits.   TAMPA BAY BANDITS Head Coach: Mark Trestman (1 st Yr) 2018 Record: 3-13 (5 th in SE)   Biggest Offseason Story: The weak get weaker. That is the impression of what happened to the Bandit defense this offseason. A squad already seen as the major flaw in the Bandit roster, a flaw that sent them to 3-13 despite a pretty solid offensive set of weapons, is not looking any better after losing both DE Jerry Hughes and LB Bryan Orakpo. The loss of arguably their two best defenders leaves the Bandits looking like a team that just does not have what it takes to keep their opponents under 25 points, maybe not even under 30 per game.   Biggest Strength: If Orlando is seeking a quick strike offense, they just need to look at Tampa Bay for inspiration. Though the Bandits want to use HB Dalvin Cook more inside, they are at their best when they get the ball out of Dak Prescott’s hands quickly, get receivers in space, and keep defenses spread thin. They have weapons in Dez Bryant, Ryan Grant, and now Ted Ginn Jr. who can do just that, and Cook is also a capable receiver, so this offense should again be Top 5 in yards, but can they also add Top 5 in points as well?   Biggest Weakness: The front 7 is just not scaring anyone. While a secondary that includes Jalen Ramsey, Trumaine McBride, Derwin James and Xavier Woods is as talented as any in the league, the front 7 is just a mishmash of players who are too slow, too mistake-prone, and too unsure of themselves. Maybe NFL imports Preston Brown and Pernell McPhee will help with that, but overall this looks very much like a team that will struggle to get teams into the 3 rd  and long situations that make their secondary’s strength useful.   Outlook: While we think it is possible for Tampa Bay to improve on their 3-win season in 2018, we don’t think they have enough on defense to get to .500. They just don’ t have the tools needed to keep offenses off the field, and if they lose the time of possession battle, their offense does not have the possessions it needs to outpace the opposition.   Predicted Finish: We think Mark Trestman will be challenged to get this group past 4-5 wins. He may well be innovative on offense, but what will he bring to the defense? What can be done with the talent he has there? We gave Tampa Bay 5 wins, but we think they have a good chance at picking first in the 2020 draft.   With Memphis rising from 6 wins to 11 last year, we got a really fun division to watch, with even 4 th  place Birmingham a better team than their 7-9 record showed. A lot of change, of course, as Drew Brees has retired from the Breakers, Birmingham brings in a new coach to try to get more out of the offense, but one constant, the Gamblers look stacked. Our Prediction: The defending USFL Champions have an easier go in the division this year as the Breakers drop without Brees.   Houston          13-3* Memphis        10-6* Birmingham     8-8 New Orleans  7-9   BIRMINGHAM STALLIONS Head Coach: Todd Haley (1 st Yr) 2018 Record: 7-9 (4 th in S)   Biggest Offseason Story: There was not a lot of press thrown towards Birmingham this offseason, but what is clear is that the coaching search was both disappointing for fans and confusing for pundits. While we like Todd Haley as an offensive play caller, pretty much everyone felt like what Birmingham needed was a Rex Ryan type, someone who would push the defense and demand more from every player. Haley is a play designer, not a motivator. Can he really get more out of this team?   Biggest Strength: Birmingham’s receiver group is very much an overlooked squad in league circles. They have four receivers who have the potential to be a lot of concern for defenses, with Amari Cooper and Dontrelle Inman outside and Julian Edelman and TE Hunter Henry inside. They need for Newton to stay in the pocket longer before giving up and taking off, because if he can get the ball to them, they will make plays for him.   Biggest Weakness: The biggest issue when the offseason began was the linebacker group, and it is still a huge issue. Outside of DeMeco Ryans, this is a group that simply does not tackle well and makes far too many mistakes in their angle of approach and their coverage. With a Front 3 that also struggles to win on the line of scrimmage, you need an aggressive linebacker group that takes the right approach to the ballcarrier and tackles well. That is not this group.   Outlook: While not a bad team overall, the Stallions are just not competitive with the best teams in the division. Houston and Memphis should dominate the division and if Geno Smith is even mediocre, Birmingham could once again find itself bringing up the rear in perhaps the toughest division in the league.   Predicted Finish: We are pretty skeptical about Smith in New Orleans, so we do have Birmingham moving to 3 rd place, but we just don’t see them making the postseason. That feels like an unreasonable goal for a team with a new head coach, and no significant upgrades in the offseason. HOUSTON GAMBLERS Head Coach: Wade Phillips 2018 Record: 12-4 (2 nd in S)   Biggest Offseason Story: The league champions spent a good part of the offseason celebrating their 5 th  title, but they did have a mission to complete, rebuilding a D-line that lost two starters. We think the additions of DTs Nick Fairley and rookie Ed Oliver will produce a solid interior, though that may take half a season to gel, but replacing Antwan Applewhite with a rotation of Tm Crowder and Tashawn Bower feels very much like a significant downgrade. Coach Phillips will need to do more to generate QB pressure, which leaves his secondary more exposed. If Houston has a backslide, we think it starts in the line.   Biggest Strength: The best way to help your D-line is to play with a lead, and Houston has every possibility of doing that with one of the most diverse and dangerous offenses in pro football. Colt McCoy, Carlos Hyde, and that receiver group, led by Mike Evans and JuJu Smith-Schuster, is just nasty. Few teams can keep them down for long, but if they can start fast, they set up the defense to just pursue the QB and ignore the run, and that is something any defense would love.   Biggest Weakness: We already gave you the answer to this, it’s the D-line. We are not sure how they will generate pressure, not with every O-line able to focus on Dante Fowler. Unless Tim Crowder or Tashawn Bower can prove to be effective against single blockers, the Gamblers may find that they are giving QBs a lot of time to make throws, and that is never a good thing.   Outlook: Despite our concerns about the pass rush, we still think Houston is one of the best teams in the league and has a real shot at repeating as champion. They will likely find Memphis a tough foe in the division, but with Drew Brees gone, New Orleans likely cedes the division crown to the Gamblers, and if they can get home field, well, that is just a formula for another Summer Bowl appearance.   Predicted Finish: This is not a team we think can go 16-0, but we also don’t think they drop below 11 wins this year, not unless we are wrong about the issues in New Orleans and Birmingham. Expect them to be in the hunt, and perhaps the favorite, to earn the 1-seed and home field in the East.   MEMPHIS SHOWBOATS Head Coach: Rex Ryan 2018 Record: 11-5 (3 rd in S)   Biggest Offseason Story: For a defensive-minded coach, Rex Ryan surprised many with his offseason priorities. The Showboats lost two important pieces from Ryan’s defense (CB Patrick Robinson and DE Mario Williams), but spent most of their offseason improving the offense by signing OT Jordan Pugh from the NFL, center Phillip Blake, WR Devin Funchess (another NFL import) and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to back up and mentor Paxton Lynch. It was only in the draft that the team addressed the CB and DE positions. That seems like a very interesting strategy for a head coach who spends all of his time focused on the D.   Biggest Strength: The inside run game is the key to everything Memphis does on offense. The line is focused on creating holes for Todd Gurley, the play action pass game depends on having 2 nd and 5 or 3 rd  and 2 to surprise defenses with quick throws to Woods and Patterson. Adding Funchess as an NFL import just adds to the play action capacity because he can win those 50/50 balls in man coverage. Fullback Roosevelt Nix is one of the best in the game, which is why you will see us predict Gurley as the OPOTY this year, because we think he has a real chance to top 1,600 yards and propel Memphis back to the playoffs.   Biggest Weakness: As much as Rex Ryan might protest, we have to say the edge rush capability of the Showboats without Mario Williams. Unless rookie Chase Winovich is the second coming of Phil Hansen, we just don’t see how he and Sam Acho can even equal the sack total that Williams gave the club last year, much less the needed pressure from the front 4 to avoid dependence on blitzes. If, as we predict, Ryan will have to send either MLB NaVorro Bowman or safety Jordan Richards on blitzes, then Memphis could be vulnerable to inside throws, especially against teams with above average receiving tight ends or slot receivers, and that is quite a few teams.   Outlook: While we are concerned that Memphis has something of a single gameplan to victory (run the ball, play action passing, stuff the run), we still think they can be a 10-11 win team. The formula is likely to work more often than it doesn’t, but we are concerned that the very team they need to overcome to have any shot at a division title is the team best-suited to overpower their defense. I mean, if you cannot pressure Colt McCoy, what chance do you have to beat the Gamblers?   Predicted Finish: We have Memphis solidly in 2 nd  place in the South, and that seems about as solid a pick as we ever make in the preseason. It just feels like that is where they are and where they belong.   NEW ORLEANS BREAKERS Head Coach: Lamar Lathon 2018 Record: 12-4 (1 st in S)   Biggest Offseason Story: As soon as Drew Brees announced he would be retiring after the 2018 season, we knew the QB position would be the focus of the Breaker offseason. There was no heir apparent in waiting. Pat White, despite getting the Week 1 start this week, was not going to be the man, and Chad Kelly is still very much a player being developed. And so, New Orleans went hard after both Ryan Nassib and Matt McGloin. They failed in both cases and that left them with few options. They did not have an inside track on Kyler Murray, and no other QB in the draft class felt like a Year One starter. So, they waited, hoping that there would be options in the NFL pool. They toyed around with the idea of pursuing Blake Bortles or Ryan Tannehill but settled on former Jet and Giant Geno Smith. Was that smart, or are they going to struggle this year and then make a deal for a better option next year?   Biggest Strength: Perhaps the best thing going for Geno Smith, who we expect will be starting by Week 2 or 3 at the latest, is that he inherits an incredible receiver group. You start with Jordy Nelson, who still dreams of being the league’s first 2,000-yard receiver. Then you have Kenny Britt, king of the 30-yard fly or fade route, and lightning quick slot receiver Tyler Lockett. Oh, and did we forget to mention the only 1,000-yard tight end in the league last year? Oh yeah, the best receiving tight end in the USFL, Coby Fleener is your safety valve. If you believe Geno Smith struggled in the NFL because he played for the Jets, and they always destroy their QB talent, then you have to like what Smith might be able to do with this group as his targets.   Biggest Weakness: If you think we are going to buy in on the theme that Geno Smith is overrated, even after struggling so much in the NFL, well, yes, you are right. We just don’t see Smith as the answer. We can honestly imagine a scenario where he ends up splitting starts not only with Pat White this year but with Chad Kelly by season’s end. If things go badly, as many think they will, New Orleans could drop to 4 th  in the division despite their stellar defensive talent, and then all eyes turn to Coach Lathon and the Personnel team as they look for a better option for 2020. Do you think we are kidding? After only 1 season at LSU, you can already find “Burrow 4 the Breakers” t-shirts throughout the Big Easy. That is an amazing thing and not a confidence builder for Geno Smith.   Outlook: We love the Breaker D. And there is talent on the offense, so if we are wrong about Geno Smith, this is a team that can battle Houston for the title. But we don’t think we are, so we have picked the Breakers to finish 4 th  and, yes, very possibly, use their T-Draft to bring in the very popular Joe Burrow next year.   Predicted Finish: I feel like we are picking on Geno Smith. Is it his fault he spent those years with the QB-crushing NY Jets? No. But for now, we have to say that while we give New Orleans the biggest possible swing range in wins (from 11 to 3), we think the most realistic situation is that they hang around .500 on defense alone and then find a new QB next year. Sorry, Geno. We hope we are wrong, because you seem an upstanding guy, but the confidence is just not there. This is perhaps our favorite division just because there are cases to be made that any team can finish first or last. We love the energy that Lamar Jackson has brought to the Skyhawks, but he cannot play defense (can anyone in St. Louis?), and we think the late trade that brought Sam Bradford to Chicago makes the Machine a much more interesting team, but in the end we think it still comes down to Michigan and Ohio. Our prediction: The Panthers rebound in a tight race.   Michigan     11-7* Ohio                10-6* Chicago         8-8 St. Louis          6-10   CHICAGO MACHINE Head Coach: Lovie Smith 2018 Record: 7-9 (3 rd in C)   Biggest Offseason Story: Is luck better than talent? That is what fans are asking about the Machine front office. Chicago made the choice to let Ryan Fitzpatrick walk, frustrated with the boom or bust nature of his Fitz-magic.  The hope was that the Machine would do what they needed to in pursuit of Ryan Nassib. When that failed, they moved on to Plan B, trading with the Federals to select Duke’s Daniel Jones. But Jones did not sign, and for the Machine Maniacs it seemed like their club would go into the season with Trevor Siemian at the helm of the offense, but when LA started calling clubs about Sam Bradford, the Machine front office seemed to stumble into a perfectly suitable option. Machine fans may not be happy to get a 3 rd  choice at QB, but ending up with Bradford is certainly a better option than standing pat with Siemian, so the Machine may have actually just stumbled into an upgrade at the game’s most important position.   Biggest Strength: As tempting as it would be to praise the HB duo of Matt Forte and Jeremy Hill, we would be doing an injustice if we did not point to the Machine secondary as the strongest part of the roster. Safeties Lano Hill and Micah Hyde are outstanding and Tavon Wilson may be the best swing safety (able to sub for either starter or play the nickel) in the game. Then you add on Josh Norman, one of the best man coverage corners in the business, and Jordan Poyer, who is outstanding in zone coverage and may well transition to safety in the future due to his willingness to play the run game, and you have a last line of defense that can produce takeaways, shut down a team’s best receiver(s) and be a factor in run defense as well. That is a great positive for any team.   Biggest Weakness: Slot receiver. This is not a knock on Kenny Golladay, who is a very solid receiver, he is just not a natural slot guy. Chicago essentially has a roster of outside receivers in Michael Floyd, Kenny Stills, Golladay, and Will Fuller. Only rookie Miles Boykin really looks like the kind of quick, shifty, fast-twitch receiver who should be lined up in the slot. So, how does Chicago use the receivers they have if no one is well suited to run those slants and crossing routes?   Outlook: We like what Coach Smith is building on the defensive side. The Machine added Arik Armstead at DT, giving them a very solid front 4. They have a talented LB group led by Manti Te’o and Kevin Minter, and that secondary. So, if Sam Bradford can turn this offense into a Top 10 or even Top 14 offense, this Chicago team could be a real contender in a division that has strong teams but teams that are not clearly dominant. Add Chicago to our list of possible dark horses for 2019.   Predicted Finish: We have the Machine at 8-8, mostly because we are just not sure if Sam Bradford is the answer. Honestly, we had folks in our staff picking them to win 12 games, and no one picked them to be worse than 7-9, so maybe we are being too negative here.   MICHIGAN PANTHERS Head Coach: Sean McDermott 2018 Record: 9-7 (2 nd in C)   Biggest Offseason Story: Honestly, we are having trouble finding a storyline for the Panthers. They were essentially non-factors in free agency, with only the Antonio Bryant signing creating any press at all. They pretty much decided to focus on the draft, signing some good players in LB Devin Bush, DE L. J. Collier, and HB Alexander Mattison, but is that enough to create buzz? Doesn’t seem so.   Biggest Strength: As much as we risk offending LeVeon Bush for a second time (after picking Gurley as our OPOTY), we think we have to say that the strength of the Panthers is the defense. They have perhaps the best 3-man LB group in the league with Odell Thurman, Sean Porter and DeVonte Holloman, and now they add in Devin Bush, who could push Holloman for snaps very soon. They have a solid 4-man line with Vickerson and Troupe clogging up the middle so that Dee Ford and Justin Tuck can crash the outside. And then you have Dre Kirkpatrick and Jabril Peppers in the secondary. That is one nasty combination of talented players on the defensive side.   Biggest Weakness: I guess we have to address the elephant in the room. For all the talent on this team, they seem to play down to the level of their opposition. Some of that falls on QB Kirk Cousins, who will have some great games and some real head scratchers. But it is more than Cousins. Last season in particular, Michigan just never seemed to be prepared for their games. They let teams hang around, and that produced some bad losses and upsets. This is a team that found their groove in the 2017 playoffs, a run that saw them capture a title, and if they could play like that each week they could win another, but their inability to stay focused and to be prepared for when things don’t go as planned holds them back.   Outlook: I know we just ripped Michigan for not playing up to their talent, but we also recognize just how much talent they have, which is why we are picking them to reclaim the division title from Ohio. They are just the better team, they just have to play like it week in and week out.   Predicted Finish: Michgan playing their best ball could go 15-1 or even 16-0, but that is not what we usually see, so we have them more in the 10-12 win range. It is all about focus. If they have it we think they dominate the division. If not, then Ohio, and maybe Chicago as well, can catch them.   OHIO GLORY Head Coach: Tom Coughlin 2018 Record: 10-6 (1 st in C)   Biggest Offseason Story: Glory fans are still angry and frustrated with management’s decision to trade away the pick that essentially gave Nick Bosa to the LA Express. Ohio did not have a dominant pass rush last year, and with Kamerion Wemberley leaving, it seemed a natural fit to add Bosa out of Ohio State. But the personnel team had other priorities and the offer from LA was just too good to pass up, so Bosa is now on the West Coast, and Ohio is going to have to figure out another plan to improve their pass rush.   Biggest Strength: While the safety duo of Tyran Matthieu and LaRon Landry is perhaps the best in the league, the real key to Ohio’s success is a concept, not a position. It is discipline. Coach Coughlin demands it, and the Glory provide it. This is a team that rarely beats itself. They are not flashy, not explosive, not all household names, but they know their roles, they play those roles, and they don’t make mistakes, and that helps them win a lot of games.   Biggest Weakness: The biggest issue we have with Ohio is that they are reliant, perhaps over-reliant on the maintained drive model of offense. Penalties, sacks, poor first down play calls, all of these can derail a drive because Ohio is not a team that can escape a 3 rd and 15 and they are not a team that is going to get a lot of 1-play 70-yard scores. They wear you down, they stick around, and they win at the end, but sometimes you just need that one big play and this offense rarely finds those.   Outlook: Ohio is not going to wow anyone, and will rarely come away with a 20-point win, but you don’t need either to be successful, at least to a point. We like Ohio as a playoff team this year, but just as with last year, once you get to the postseason, you are going to have to do more than just plug along to make a run, and we wonder if this Ohio squad can produce the magic needed to win 3 or 4 playoff games.   Predicted Finish: We picked Michigan to edge past the Glory for the division, but it will be close. It could go either way. With Ohio we see stability without a huge upside or a big dip, but with Michigan the ceiling is just higher.   ST. LOUIS SKYHAWKS Head Coach: Frank Reich 2018 Record: 5-11 (4 th in C)   Biggest Offseason Story:  As much as we believe in the “build through the draft” philosophy, it is rare that a team goes all in on the draft to the absolute absence of any other plan. But that is exactly what the Skyhawks did. They signed only a few “camp bodies” in free agency, made no signing from our top 100 free agents, no NFL imports, and their only trades involved draft picks. Essentially they just put it all on the draft, which is so risky when the NFL snaps up 50% of all picks. They did come away with a larger-than-normal draft class, but that also means they have a rookie-heavy roster, which may mean that improvement will come too late for Coach Reich, unless they can surprise this year.   Biggest Strength: I guess we should say “youth”, but the real answer may be “unfamiliarity”. Teams just don’t know this team well, from QB Lamar Jackson, entering his first full season as the starter, to the crop of rookies who will likely see a lot of action, there is just not a lot of film on these guys, and that could be a strength if the Skyhawks can keep from playing vanilla football and can throw some unexpected twists at the opposition.   Biggest Weakness: With such a focus on youth, the obvious answer would seem to be “inexperience” but when your run defense is one of the worst not only in the league, but in league history, we cannot ignore it. The Skyhawks simply could not stop anyone on the ground. They gave up more 200-yard games to teams than most teams do in a decade. We honestly feel for LBs Roquon Smith and Trey Hendrickson, who were asked to run from sideline to sideline to chase down backs who went through the line untouched. It is an area that has to improve or this club will simply not be competitive, no matter what magic Lamar Jackson has.   Outlook: We just don’t see enough improvement on defense to have St. Louis escape the basement of the division. This is a team that needed to go after Ndamukong Suh or Sedrick Ellis in free agency, but did not. They need more out of their front 4, but we just don’t think they will get it, and that means another season of halfbacks licking their chops every time they see the Skyhawks on the schedule for the week.   Predicted Finish: We fell on 6-10 for St. Louis, but beware, this could be a 2-win team, seriously. We think Lamar Jackson, Eddie Lacy, Stevie Johnson and Rob Gronkowski can keep that from happening, but even 6 wins seems generous unless that defense has a major upgrade in output.   Arizona is just stacked on defense, but we have to believe that even with Victor Cruz coming over, the WR group will miss Fitzgerald and Bryant. Does that create space for another team? Well, Denver is starting an untested QB, Oklahoma did very little to improve their roster from 2018, and Dallas, well, a bit of a mess still, so we look at Las Vegas, with Matt McGloin and Aaron Dobson added as the most likely challenger. Will they have enough? Our prediction: Arizona holds on, but Las Vegas, Oklahoma, and Denver are in the mix.   Arizona           12-4* Las Vegas       10-6* Oklahoma        9-7 Denver             7-9 Dallas               5-11   ARIZONA WRANGLERS Head Coach: Jim Tomsula 2018 Record: 12-3-1 (1 st in SW)   Biggest Offseason Story: It may seem a bit crass to put it this way, but the story for the Wranglers this summer was throwing money around to maximum effect. With the retirements of Larry Fitzgerald, Frank Gore and Troy Polamalu, Arizona shot to the top of the big spenders, with nearly $30 million available to use to restock their roster, and man, oh, man, did they use it. The highlight, of course, was the deal struck with the Orlando Renegades to land Calais Campbell, and to give him a contract that will have him finish his career in the desert. But it did not stop there. Arizona knew they had needs to fill and they used every tool available to do so.   Through free agency they added WR Victor Cruz, CB Jeremy Lane, and FB Andy Janovich. From the NFL they brought in HB Isaiah Crowell, DEs Bud Dupree and Terrance Fede, and OT D. J. Humphries. They added WR N’Keal Harry through the draft, and they acquired SS Corey White in a second deal with Orlando in which they moved out of the first round of the draft. In other words, Arizona had money to spend and they did just that.   Biggest Strength: We could point to several position groups, but the overwhelming theme is that this is a club that has veteran leadership up and down the roster, perhaps less than in recent years, as there has been a steady turnover the past two offseasons, but there is still a wealth of savvy leadership across this roster. It starts with QB David Carr on offense, where the line is also supported by veteran left tackle Brandon Scherff. And while Arizona has lost a lot of longstanding team captains on defense, they still have solid experienced leaders in LB A. J. Klien, CB Joe Haden, and safety Nate Allen. You can count Calais Campbell in that group as well, though new to the Wranglers, he will bring in a huge career wealth of experience, knowledge, and motivation to the club.   Biggest Weakness: Depth is a concern. With the exodus of talent through free agency and retirements in the past two years, the big hit has been depth. The Wranglers have filled a lot of gaps but have not necessarily backfilled the bottom 20 spots on the roster. We see this in the secondary, where key injuries to Haden or Nate Allen could produce issues. The same is true if any of their starting D-Linemen go down. And, unlike last year when Ryan Nassib was able to step in for David Carr and lead the Wranglers to a Summer Bowl, this year they will have two very inexperienced and unsure players behind Carr (Brandon Allen and Tom Savage).   Outlook: If the key figures for Arizona can stay healthy, this will be a Summer Bowl contender. Fans of the rest of the SW Division as well as the entire Western Conference had to be distraught to see the Wranglers acquire Campbell, a once-in-a-lifetime talent. They also did well to restock their receiver group, though we don’t expect that Victor Cruz can truly replace Larry Fitzgerald. All in all this looks like a team ready to once again make a run at a title.   Predicted Finish: We gave Arizona 4 losses purely out of deference for a pretty solid division, expecting that Las Vegas, Denver, or Oklahoma will at some point find a way to upend the Wranglers at some point, but we still don’t see any of them being able to match Arizona’s season-long success.   DALLAS ROUGHNECKS Head Coach: Kliff Kingsbury 2018 Record: 3-13 (5 th in SW)   Biggest Offseason Story: Kliff Kingsbury now leads a very different team from the one he inherited a year ago. He has a new QB in former MVP Josh Freeman, and, now, after two solid free agent moves, they have veteran leaders on the O-line (guard Chance Warmack) and on defense (MLB Clay Matthews). The addition of both veterans and veterans with strong locker room and on-field leadership skills can only help the Roughnecks as they try to get a foothold in a very tough division.   Biggest Strength: Dallas has been very intentional the past two years, focusing on adding veterans who can still play at a high level. Think about these recent additions in the Kingsbury run: QB Josh Freeman, WR Sammy Watkins, OG Chance Warmack, OT Cordy Glenn, DT Domato Peko, DE Connor Barwin, LB Clay Matthews, LB Jamie Collins, and CB Patrick Peterson. This has not only been an infusion of talent, but one of quality locker room guys. Will it now start to pay off?   Biggest Weakness: The one area where we look at the Roughnecks and wonder if they have what it takes is the run game. The RB room of Perine, Charles Sims, and Myles Gaskin is just not one most defensive coordinators are going to gameplan around. That means a lot of pressure still sits with the QB, and while Josh Freeman has skills, he may not be able to salvage wins without a viable run game.   Outlook: Dallas could make a leap this year, but we are not feeling comfortable saying that right now. There is talent on this team, but the SW Division is a brutal gauntlet and we have yet to see enough out of the Roughnecks to think they can survive it. We think they still sit in the basement, but if they do come together and if others, particularly Denver and Oklahoma, struggle more than anticipated, they could find themselves in a Wild Card hunt.   Predicted Finish: We gave Dallas 5 wins in our division prediction. That may be lowballing their potential a bit, but again, there are just not going to be many divisional games where they are favored, perhaps not a single one. If we are wrong, we will see it early on as Dallas faces Denver twice in the first 5 weeks as well as Oklahoma and Arizona. If they can get even 2 wins in that run, they may well be better than we are giving them credit for.   DENVER GOLD Head Coach: John Hufnagel 2018 Record: 9-7 (2 nd in SW)   Biggest Offseason Story: Trusting the process. That was the story we heard out of Denver all offseason. Despite some calling for the Gold to go after one of the break out QBs available, the Gold stuck to their plan to have Josh Allen take over after Matt Leinart. They signed a solid backup in Kyle Orton, a player whose experience can benefit Allen, whose style would be similar (though not nearly as mobile) and whose presence is not a threat to the 2 nd  year QB. They signed a quality safety valve, trading to acquire rights to T. J. Hockenson from St. Louis, and they did not panic after losing Ndamukong Suh in free agency. Coach Hufnagel exudes competence and confidence and so a stay the course plan is one Denver fans are buying into.   Biggest Strength: There are several position groups we would call strengths of the Gold, but the O-line is the one that seems to be ahead of all the others. It is a veteran group, one that will have played together for the better part of 3 years, and they can do it all. They can open holes for DeMarco Murray and Phillip Lindsay. They excel in the screen game, and they will provide solid protection for their young QB. That is a good place to start for any new starting QB, but especially for one who just has not seen the kind of talent on the field that the USFL will throw at him.   Biggest Weakness: It has to be Allen. Denver fans just do not know what they will get from the former Wyoming Cowboy. Will he be the next Cam Newton? The next Joe Flacco? Or the next Ryan Leaf? He has arm strength to compare with the best in the game. He can be physical and is an effective runner like Newton, but accuracy has always been a concern. And what about his psychological makeup? This is a player who no one wanted out of HS. He had to send tapes to coaches out of Jr. College to get any interest at all, and then it was only Wyoming that took a shot on him. What happens if his first month is rough? If fans start calling for Kyle Orton to play? Will he develop a thick skin or crumble under the pressure. This is a reality that playing in Laramie just does not prepare a player to handle.   Outlook: Denver has a solid roster, with a few highlight players like DE Von Miller, SS DaJuan Morgan, and the always reliable Golden Tate at WR. It also has some young talent like HB Phillip Lindsay and rookie TE T. J. Hockenson, but when push comes to shove, Coach Hufnagel is putting this team in the hands of his 2 nd  year QB and how Josh Allen responds will make or break the season.   Predicted Finish: We cannot imagine that this will be an easy season in Denver. We think they hover around .500 because they have good talent on the roster, but we think it is a growing year with a new QB and that means you have to measure success based on growth rather than the final record.   LAS VEGAS VIPERS Head Coach: Rick Neuheisel 2018 Record: 7-9 (4 th in SW)   Biggest Offseason Story: Viper fans may have been laser focused on the QB position after Eli Manning’s retirement, but inside the personnel room at Wynn Arena, the Viper front office was not. They understood that to be successful in 2019 they needed to be better across the board. Yes, they addressed the QB position, locking in 2018 breakout player Matt McGloin with a 4-year deal, but they also added talent all over the roster, bringing in 100-reception possession receiving stud Aaron Dobson, luring tackling machine Blake Martinez over from the NFL, beefing up the line with DT Sylvester Williams, and then drafting for depth with another DT in Dre’Mont Jones and a promising young wideout in Darius Slayton. Yes, the QB is important, but he cannot do it alone. That seems to be the message from Coach Neuheisel.   Biggest Strength: Don’t look now, but it seems that Las Vegas has built themselves quite an impressive front 4. Adding Sylvester Williams and rookie Dre’Mont Jones to the middle of the line, pairing Mario Addison and Matthew Judon outside, and having solid depth with DE Malik Jackson and DT Nate Orchard, and we could see 7 or 8 players rotating in and out on the line to keep the group fresh and wear down the opposing O-line. They are not the biggest name group, but they could be a handful for offenses to manage.   Biggest Weakness: We love the Dobson signing, but there is still concern that the rest of the Vegas WR group is just not going to be able to step up. Arrelious Benn has never lived up to his potential. Darius Slayton is an unknown commodity, and neither Derek Hagan nor Arnold Brown are going to take the top off the defense. And that may be the biggest issue here. We just don’t see anyone here who is going to pull a safety deep and allow underneath receivers to play the gaps in the zone.   Outlook: We like Las Vegas as the likely 2 nd  place team, though it is close and either Oklahoma or Denver could be right there as well. Why do we prefer Las Vegas? They have solid talent on both lines, they play within themselves, and they don’t take too many risks. That can be enough in a close game to give them an edge.   Predicted Finish: The Vipers are not a team that can rattle off 12 or 13 wins, but that 10-win threshold which usually produces playoff berths seems very much within their capabilities. They would love more, but this year that feels like a good target for them.   OKLAHOMA OUTLAWS Head Coach: Bob Stoops (1 st Yr) 2018 Record: 7-9 (4 th in SW)   Biggest Offseason Story: Outside of the signing of Bob Stoops, there was not much news out of Oklahoma City this offseason. Fans are excited about Stoops, but he is a first-time pro coach, so there will be a learning curve. He has great veteran leadership in Joe Flacco, but the team has not done much to add talent to a roster that seemed overmatched quite a few times last season.   Biggest Strength: Oklahoma does not have the most impressive roster in the league, but what they have is personnel who fit what they want to do, especially on offense. Coach Stoops wants to use a lot of 2-TE, 1-back formations, run the ball inside, throw off play action, and protect his QB. The Outlaws should be able to do just that with 2 solid receiving tight ends in Mark Andrews and Julius Thomas, along with an inside run game led by Marshawn Lynch. Flacco’s lack of mobility could be an issue, but not if an effective run game keeps teams from overcommitting to the pass rush.   Biggest Weakness: We are having trouble seeing how Oklahoma will generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Neither DE (Chris Harrington or Jordan Willis) has what it takes to be a consistent 10+ sack guy, and their LB group is just not built for blitzing. So, if the Outlaws cannot put pressure on the opposing QB, how do they get teams off the field?   Outlook: The Outlaws had a shot at a playoff spot up until the final week last year, and that could be the situation again this year, but while 8 wins seems very viable, we struggle to see how the Outlaws can do much better without addressing their somewhat limited capacity to make big plays and their defensive concerns.   Predicted Finish: We put Oklahoma at 9-7, but it could just as easily prove to be 7-9 again. They have a veteran in QB Joe Flacco who gives them stability at the most important position, but last year they struggled to get Marshawn Lynch any space in the run game. If that happens again, it is hard to see how Oklahoma finishes in playoff position.   The story of the offseason has been the LA Express, but they are a team now built on rookies, so don’t expect immediate success. Oakland and San Diego still look like the best all around teams in the division, and we think both Seattle and Portland will again hover around .500, but this is a division that could certainly bring surprises. Our prediction: We like the Thunder to edge out Oakland for the title, but it will be a battle of near equals between these two. We are going to also say that Seattle does not go 0-5 to start the year, so they have a shot as well.   San Diego        11-5* Oakland         10-6* Seattle             9-7 Portland           8-8 Los Angeles     6-10   LOS ANGELES EXPRESS Head Coach: Marvin Lewis (1 st Yr) 2018 Record: 3-13 (5 th in P)   Biggest Offseason Story: The way the new Express front office gamed the 2-tier USFL draft process will be studied for years. They worked every angle to perfection and what that got them was the consensus top pick at three vital positions, QB, DE, and WR. That was a coup, plain and simple, and what a way for former Seattle head coach Marvin Lewis to make a splash with a very cynical fanbase. LA may struggle this year, as most teams with rookies in key positions of leadership do, but there is a clear sense that the Express are not messing around anymore.   Biggest Strength: It has been a while since we have said this, but LA could have a truly outstanding D-line. That has not been the case in a long time, but now, with Chris Jones inside, with Nick Bosa on the left end and with a rotation of Laurence Jackson and Andy Studebaker on the right side, the Express present offenses with some tough choices. Throw in veteran LB Keith Rivers calling the defensive adjustments and we could see a revival of some tough front 7 play with this Express team.   Biggest Weakness: For all the excitement about the rookie haul of the Express, the offense is likely to be a work in progress as Murray adjusts to the speed of the USFL. We love that the Express added C. J. Anderson in the past 2 weeks, because they need a better option on 3 rd  and 3 than Reggie Bush can provide, and we hope that Murray and Jason Whitten are getting a lot of reps together, because we fully expect Murray to have happy feet and to need some emergency escape valves as he learns how tough USFL coverage can be on a young QB.   Outlook: Does anyone want to hazard a guess? While we love the aggressive stance the Express took this offseason, it did focus mostly on the draft, which means this will be a team that needs time to mature, to grow together, and to learn the pro game. So, we expect a slow start, and improvement over the 2 nd  half of the season.   Predicted Finish: We have LA finishing last in the division once again, but we think the vibe coming out of the 2 nd half of the season will be one of great promise. Rome was not built in a day, but with a fresh start, this franchise feels like one that is going to build towards something special. It just takes time.   OAKLAND INVADERS Head Coach: Gary Kubiak 2018 Record: 11-5 (1 st in P)   Biggest Offseason Story: The 2019 offseason was all about building depth on an Oakland roster that took them to the Western Conference finals. Yes, they did suffer a couple of big losses in center Matt Light and DT Sedrick Ellis, but their focus in talent acquisition was far more on backups who can contribute than on immediate impact players. Whether it is Bryce Love at halfback, J. J. Arcega-Whiteside at WR, or Christian Wilkens at DT, the moves made, particularly in the draft, were about adding to the depth on some key player rotation positions.   Biggest Strength: The Invader blitz game is one of the best in the league, perhaps the best. Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett are a solid left-right end combo, but they are made even better because of the capacity of LBs Bobby Wagner and Junior Galette to crash the line, the willingness of Coach Kubiak to send either Jaiquawn Jarrett or Jahleel Addae from the safety slot, or even to send Chris Gamble from the CB position on blitzes, and, oh yes, the Invaders just added Shaq Barrett on the weak side LB position, another LB blitz option with speed and ferocity. Have fun Pacific Conference QBs. Oakland is going to be coming for you.   Biggest Weakness: With the only addition being mid-round rookie J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, it looks like the Invaders have once again forgotten the WR position in the offseason. Sure, Davante Adams is an elite receiver, but he would benefit so much from having a true number two on the field. Davone Bess and Taylor Gabriel are both better as slot receivers, and Donte Moncrief has just not developed as hoped. Had Oakland gone after a possession guy like Aaron Donald, they could be dominant in the air, but at present it feels very much like Jimmy G has to look deep for Adams and then settle for a dump down to Ertz over the middle as the primary offensive plan.   Outlook: When you have a defense like the one Oakland puts on the field, led by DPOTY Bobby Wagner, you are going to be in every game and very likely you will win far more than you lose. Add a full offseason of rest and preparation for Jimmy Garoppolo and we again see Oakland as not only a playoff contender but a team that could make it all the way to Las Vegas and Summer Bowl 2019.   Predicted Finish: We all but flipped a coin between Oakland and San Diego, as we think either one could win the division. Oakland is the more conservative call, and they could well step up to the 12-13 win plateau, but we felt like there is slightly more “pop” coming out of San Diego right now, so we gave it to them.   PORTLAND STAGS Head Coach: Matt LaFleur 2018 Record: 9-7 (3 rd in P)   Biggest Offseason Story: Portland fans are over the moon about the signing of Ndamukong Suh to solidify the D-line, but after losing both Channing Crowder (free agency to Philadelphia) and Lance Briggs (retirement), we wonder who is going to play behind Suh in the LB group. The Stags need for either Justin Hollins or David Hawthorne to step up at MLB, because right now that looks like a big need area for them, even with a stud like Suh at nose tackle.   Biggest Strength: The Stags have a brutal 1-2 punch at halfback with Doug Martin and Ben Tate. We could actually be seeing a backfield with two 1,000-yard backs if the offense can stay on the field to give each enough carries. Portland will lean on that running duo all season long, allowing Mariota to play 2 nd  fiddle and pick and choose his chances against a defense that will be forced to creep the safeties to the line. That could be very good news for Brandin Cooks once again.   Biggest Weakness: The Stags MLB position is an unknown quantity, but we are actually more concerned about the options at tight end. Neither Trey Burton nor Pharaoh Brown provides much to QB Marcus Mariota. They are also not outstanding blockers, so the run game does not benefit as much as they would from a dedicated run-blocking end on the line. It is a glaring issue for an offense that wants to play power football with a mix of play action.   Outlook: Portland feels like a team that could surprise us with 10-11 wins or with 5-6 wins. We choose to think that Coach LaFleur will get something between those two poles from this club. They tend to play very well at home, but struggle on the road. That feels like an 8-win season more or less, which is what we predicted.   Predicted Finish: Until Portland proves that the MLB and TE positions are stronger than what we see, we cannot put them at more than 8-8. There are a few other areas that worry us, but those two are the big and obvious question marks.   SAN DIEGO THUNDER Head Coach: Dick LeBeau 2018 Record: 10-6 (2 nd in P)   Biggest Offseason Story: The Thunder became the masters of the double down this summer. They saw need areas and they added not one but two possible solutions. Take HB for example. There was not much behind starter Ryan Williams, so San Diego added not only scatback Taiwan Jones in free agency but also brought in a big thumper in Miami big back Travis Homer in the draft. They did the same thing at OT with Jack Conklin the free agent and Jacob Skule in the draft, and at DT with Damon Harrison in free agency and Dexter Lawrence in the draft.   Biggest Strength: The San Diego receiver group can do it all. They have one of the best deep ball receivers in football in Marques Colston, a quality possession guy in Nick Toon, and an elusive slot receiver in DeVante Parker. Add depth with Chris Givens and David Clowney and you have more than enough weapons for Christian Ponder to have success with.   Biggest Weakness: Killer instinct. That is what the Thunder seem to lack. At least that is what head coach Dick LeBeau stated as his biggest concern after the Thunder were knocked from the playoffs last year. Has he addressed that in the offseason? Can he teach that to his team? We are not exactly sure how you address that.   Outlook: We like San Diego to challenge Oakland for the Pacific Division, and after going 0-1 two years ago and 1-1 in last year’s playoffs, we wonder if they can string together 3-4 solid games to make a Summer Bowl run this year. If Coach LeBeau can build that killer instinct he wants to see, they have the talent to make the run. It is one of the reasons we have them as our dark horse Summer Bowl contender.   Predicted Finish: We put San Diego just ahead of Oakland in the division. If they can do just a bit better, maybe secure a 1 or 2 seed, they could be a real contender.   SEATTLE DRAGONS Head Coach: Mike Riley 2018 Record: 8-8 (4 th in P)   Biggest Offseason Story: While there were some in the PNW demanding that Seattle make a deal with Matt McGloin, that was not the sentiment in the personnel room for Mike Riley’s team. They are sticking with Jacoby Brissett as their starter, bringing in a bit of a Brissett doppleganger in former NJ quarterback Brett Hundley as the backup. So, while fans clamored for something very different, the Dragons spent the offseason focused on becoming a top tier defense. The additions of DE Jerry Hughes and rookies Josh Allen (LB) and Taylor Rapp (S), could have them headed in that direction.   Biggest Strength: If you think speed and aggression should be the hallmark of a linebacker group, you will love the Seattle Dragons. From Kahlil Mack and Carl Ihenacho outside to Calvin Pace at MLB, and now the addition of Josh Allen, who could sub both inside or outside, you may have the most violent and pursuit-minded LB group in the league. Expect Coach Riley to use them in coverage, in blitz schemes, and as run blitzers as well. It should be fun to watch.   Biggest Weakness: As much as we love Coach Riley’s devotion to his 2017 starter, we are just not sold on Jacoby Brissett as a franchise quarterback. But with Brett Hundley and Brad Gradkowski behind him, we think Brissett will get every chance to prove himself, with a very slow hook if he struggles. We saw how effective Matt McGloin could be in this offense last year, so if Brissett struggles this year, we think they will address the position in 2020, but that is not what fans want to hear if they are buying tickets in 2019.   Outlook: It is simple, if Seattle had gone 3-2 or even 2-3 in each of the prior seasons, they would have been right in the hunt for the division title. Fans are antsy, but the reality is that another 0-5 start will have people questioning just what Mike Riley is doing in camp. If Seattle can get off to even a mediocre start, they could be a factor, so just win the opener and go from there.   Predicted Finish: We ended up giving Seattle the benefit of the doubt, mostly because we think their defense has potential to be elite this year. If they can avoid the slow start, they could be right there at the end, but if they start off with even just a few losses to start the year, we could see a full-on panic set in.   OUR 2019 PLAYOFF PICKS Our divisional picks give us New Jersey, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston and Memphis in the East with San Diego, Oakland, Arizona, Las Vegas, Michigan, and Ohio in the West. Houston and Arizona earn the top seeds, and we see both as very strong contenders for another Summer Bowl matchup. And while we tried out all kinds of scenarios, we realized that we simply were looking for ways to avoid a Summer Bowl rematch. Why? There has never been a rematch year-to-year in the Summer Bowl, maybe we are due? Yes, we are due. The Gamblers and Wranglers are in strong positions to return to the title game, and so we are going to predict two very rare occurrences. We are predicting a Summer Bowl rematch of the Gamblers and Wranglers, and we are predicting only the 2 nd  back-to-back title in league history as the Gamblers take it again for their 6 th  title.   And, for those who hate this scenario, who do we see as the most likely spoilers? We give the best odds to San Diego in the West and Atlanta in the East, but, like we said, why fight the rematch if it seems the logical choice?   OUR 219 AWARD PREDICTIONS We have predicted the divisions, each team’s possible record, and our choice for a rematch in the Summer Bowl. All that is left to decide is who walks away with the individual honors. We will give you our favorite and two very likely contenders for each award as we look ahead to the 2019 season.   MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Our Pick: Colt McCoy, QB-HOU.  No shock here. The QB of the defending champions, heading up one of the league’s most dynamic offenses and picked to go back-to-back as champions, yes, a pretty solid choice if we say so ourselves. Contenders: This is still a QB category, and we have two intriguing picks for you, both out of the Northeast. Ryan Nassib proved last year that he could win with Arizona’s outstanding receivers, and now, as the starter for Washington, he does not lose much with Keenan Allen and Brandon LaFell to throw to. If the Feds can make a run at the division, Nassib could get a lot of looks. The other pick is a bit of a dark horse, but if Josh Jacobs has the kind of rookie season he is capable of, that could really open up the coverages, and Big Ben Roethlisberger, a former MVP, can have a field day if that happens. Baltimore needs help on defense if they want to top .500, and that could hold Big Ben back, but on stats alone he could be a contender.   OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR Our Pick: Todd Gurley, HB-MEM. Did you all just hear LeVeon Bell punch a wall? Yes, this pick will upset him, but we think Coach Ryan and the Showboats want to turn Gurley into a consistent 1,600 yard back, and we think that they will feed him the ball in a way that we suspect Coach McDermott does not want to do with Bell. Contenders: Bell, of course, so let’s just assume that. Our other pick is Houston WR Mike Evans, a serious contender last year and likely to be one again this year.   DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR Our Pick: Calais Campbell, DE-ARZ. Look, the only reason he has not won every single year for a decade is that his Renegade teams could not support him with more wins. He will not have that issue with Arizona. What is more, we think he has a real chance of breaking his own record of 34 sacks in a season because Arizona’s other defenders are solid enough to force QBs to hold the ball, and that will make Campbell grin from ear to ear. Contenders: If we imagine a world where Calais Campbell somehow takes a step backwards, then who is around to challenge? Well, we have 2018 winner LB Bobby Wagner of the Invaders. He is a very strong contender. Our dark horse is Bryan Orakpo, moving from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh, where he has Aaron Donald in front of him, could help him set a league record in tackles and tackles for loss. We love his potential as a Mauler.   ROOKIE OF THE YEAR Our Pick: Josh Jacobs, HB-BAL. We love Jacobs to the Blitz. They have dynamic receivers, a proven QB, and a solid line. That all means that defenses will simply not be able to stack the box or overcompensate for Jacobs, and we saw what he could do against top competition in the SEC. We think he could be a huge difference maker and a 1,200-yard rusher as a rookie. Contenders: If the LA Express’s huge offseason gambits pay off, we could imagine either DE Nick Bosa or QB Kyler Murray being in the mix simply because we will be talking about them all season long. Murray would need to improve LA’s win total to have a shot, but Bosa, with big individual numbers could certainly be in the running.   COACH OF THE YEAR: Our Pick: This is always tough because it is essentially asking us to figure out which team that everyone expects to be mediocre that completely outplays their talent and ends up in the playoffs. Look back at the COTY award and that is what you see almost every year. That is tough, but if we have to pick someone with that model, we think the potential is there for Baltimore to rise up in the NE and that means Jim Caldwell could win his second COTY. Contenders: Marvin Lewis has to be on this list even if LA only wins 6 or 7 games, because he is well-respected around the league and he worked with the Express to reimagine what an offseason could look like. We also think Jim Harbaugh in Philadelphia and potentially 1 st year coach Todd Haley in Birmingham could sneak in if their clubs exceed expectations.   Is it time for kickoff yet? Nearly there. Friday starts us off on a week of firsts, new faces in new places, rookies making their pro debut, and a long list of new QBs taking the field. It is exciting, it is about time, and, based on the weather forecast for this week, it may be one of the better opening weekends in league history (at least for folks that like to stay dry and avoid scraping the ice off their car after the game. Here is every matchup for the weekend ahead. Enjoy, and let’s get this season going!!!   Friday @ 7pm ET           Ohio @ Michigan                     NBC The season kicks off with a huge Central Division opener as the last two division champs go head to head on opening night.   Friday @ 9:30pm ET       New Jersey @ Houston             ABC The late game gives us a rematch of the Eastern Conference Title Game as Houston hosts the Generals.   Saturday @ 12pm ET     Washington @ Memphis             ABC Ryan Nassib steps in as Washington’s new field marshal as the Feds face a very different-looking Rex Ryan defense without Patrick Robinson or Mario Williams.   Saturday @ 12pm ET     Chicago @ Pittsburgh                   FOX Sam Bradford will don the Machine maroon as Chicago heads into Pittsburgh to face Andy Dalton and NFL import wideout Jarvis Landry for the Maulers.   Saturday @ 4pm ET       Philadelphia @ Birmingham     ABC Coach Todd Haley has his first test as his Stallions host Jim Harbaugh and the Philadelphia Stars.   Saturday @ 4pm ET       New Orleans @ Seattle               FOX NFL Import Geno Smith gets the start at QB as the Breakers head to Seattle, where Jacoby Brissett has a lot to prove to Dragon fans.   Saturday @ 7pm ET     Charlotte @ Orlando                 NBC A SE Division clash as Mitch Trubisky and the Monarchs head to Orlando, who hope rookie Montez Sweat can help fill the gap left by Calais Campbell.   Saturday @ 9pm ET     Los Angeles @ Oakland            ESPN/EFN Kyler Murray, Hollywood Brown and Nick Bosa all begin their pro careers for LA, and no easy task taking on the 2018 Division Champ Invaders.   Sunday @ 12pm ET      Jacksonville @ Atlanta              ABC Regional Teddy Bridgewater gets the start over newly-arrived Ryan Tannehill as the Bulls head into Atlanta to face Nick Chubb and the Fire.   Sunday @ 12pm ET        St. Louis @ Baltimore                  ABC Regional Lamar Jackson and the Skyhawks taken on the Blitz, but how will St. Louis’s defense handle rookie Josh Jacobs?   Sunday @ 12pm ET        Las Vegas @ Tampa Bay              FOX Matt McGloin steps into Eli Manning’s shoes and Aaron Dobson gets a new start as the Vipers travel to Tampa Bay to face Dak Prescott and the Bandits.   Sunday @ 4pm ET         San Diego @ Portland                ABC Marcus Mariota and Christian Ponder will duel at Columbia Sportswear Stadium as the Stags and Thunder kick off their 2018 campaigns.   Sunday @ 4pm ET         Arizona @ Oklahoma                 FOX David Carr is back under center, and Calais Campbell dons the copper helmet of the Wranglers for the first time as they face Joe Flacco and the Outlaws.   Sunday @ 8pm ET         Denver @ Dallas                           ESPN/EFN After a year in apprenticeship behind Matt Leinart, QB Josh Allen takes over the reins of the Denver offense as they face Josh Freeman and the Dallas Roughnecks on Sunday night.