XFL opening weekend: schedule, best bets, how to watch, more

The XFL is back and under new management with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson attempting to revitalize the spring football league. The season will kick off on Saturday two games and then another two games to follow on Sunday. All the eight XFL teams will play 10 regular-season games and then the playoffs will be comprised of two rounds.

There will be a few familiar names and faces in the XFL this season. The league, which had its draft in November, features former NFL players like Josh Gordon, Martavis Bryant, Kalen Ballage, AJ McCarron, Ryquell Armstead, Kahale Warring, Sammie Coates, and Ben DiNucci.

The league is headquartered in Arlington, Texas. All eight teams will practice in the surrounding area but fly out to play their weekly games at the home stadiums associated with their city.

Dwayne Johnson has also tried to boost the image of the league by creating an all-access TV series called “Player 54: Chasing the XFL Dream,” which follows XFL players and coaches during the season. The first episode premiered on Thursday and will be available on ESPN+ immediately following. New episodes will air on Thursdays at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN.

How to Watch:

Every game will air on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, or FX and be streamed on ESPN+.

Unique Rules

The extra points rules in the XFL are as follows: touchdowns are worth 6 points and teams can choose to go for a 1-point play from the 2-yard line, 2-point play from the 5-yard line, or a 3-point play from the 10-yard line. Teams cannot kick for an extra point like in the NFL.

Schedule:

Saturday, February 18th

Vegas Vipers at Arlington Renegades: 3 p.m. ET on ABC
Orlando Guardians at Houston Roughnecks: 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and FX

Sunday, February 19th

St. Louis Battlehawks at San Antonio Brahmas: 3 p.m. ET on ABC
Seattle Sea Dragons at D.C. Defenders: 8 p.m. ET on ESPN

Best Bets:

You can bet on the XFL the same way you’d bet on NFL games. All major sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, will allow you to place bets on the moneyline, spread, and total, as well as placing futures bets on who will be the XFL Champion.

For the purpose of this article, all the odds listed below will be from DraftKings Sportsbook, and you can find up-to-date odds by clicking here.

Arlington/Vegas OVER 37 points (-105)

These two teams come into the XFL season pretty evenly matched with Arlington having +500 odds to win the championship and Vegas coming in at +550. There are also familiar names all over the field with these two teams.

The Vipers have ex-NFL players Martavius Bryant, Geronimo Allison, and Vic Beasley. Bryant had 145 receptions for over 2000 yards in his NFL career and showed real talent but also violated the league’s substance abuse policy multiple times. Allison was a starting wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, catching passes from Aaron Rodgers, and Vic Beasley had a six-year NFL career with the Falcons that included a 2016 season where he led the league in sacks, forced fumbles, and fumbles returned for a touchdown in his second year in the league.

Arlington’s most familiar name is on the sidelines, where they will be coached by former Oklahoma great Bob Stoops, who happens to be the only returning coach to the XFL. He brought his coordinators from Norman with him and should run a pass-first offense led by Kyle Sloter, a former Northern Colorado quarterback who lit up ther NFL preseason in his career with a 74% completion rate and 11 touchdowns to one interception. He also threw the ball harder than Patrick Mahomes during the pre-draft process, just for fun.

Sloter was solid in the USFL with the New Orleans Breakers, and his teammate in New Orleans, tight end Sal Cannella, is also playing for Arlington after they torched the USFL together. All told, I think there should be a lot of offense in this game, so taking the over makes sense to me.

Houston -3 (-110)

The Roughnecks also have another recognizable coach in Wade Phillips, the former head coach of the Broncos, Bills, and Cowboys, and longtime defensive coordinator. As a result, it would be a surprise if the Houston defense isn’t among the league’s best.

Yet, their offense could also be intriguing as they’ll be coordinated by AJ Smith, who started coaching at 19-year-old when June Jones brought him to coach at the East-West Shrine Game. Smith is a disciple of the Run-and-Shoot offense and even “went to Osaka, Japan, to install the Run & Shoot for the Panasonic Impulse professional football team.” He became an offensive coordinator at just 21 years old and then went on to coach at UCLA, SMU, and Louisiana.

The Roughnecks could be quarterbacked by Cole McDonald, who has Run & Shoot experience while playing at Hawaii where he threw for 8,010 yards with 69 touchdowns and 24 interceptions in his two years as a starter. McDonald is in a battle with Brandon Silvers, who spent four years as the QB at Troy and played in the XFL before as a member of the Seattle Dragons.

Catching passes from whoever starts will be more former college stars like Cedric Byrd, who had 1,097 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2019 for Hawaii, and Deontay Burnett, who had 1,114 yards and nine touchdowns for USC in 2017.

Meanwhile, Orlando comes into this season with the worst odds to win the championship at +900 and will be coached by Terrell Buckley, a 13-year NFL veteran who accumulated 50 career interceptions and will be his first job as head coach.

Orlando also has major question marks at quarterback where they recently signed Paxton Lynch, a former first-round pick of the Broncos, Paxton Lynch to compete with Deondre Francois, a former prospect at Florida State. Despite Lynch being a first-round pick, he averaged just 6.6 yards per attempt while throwing five touchdowns and four interceptions in the USFL with the Michigan Panthers.

St. Louis -2.5 (-110)

The St. Louis Battlehawks are the favorite to win the league this year with +400 odds at DraftKings and have some big names on their team. The biggest is AJ McCarron, the former Alabama quarterback and NFL backup for eight seasons. McCarron won three national championships at Alabama, including two as a starter, so he brings tons of experience.

There will also be experience in the backfield with him in former Falcons running back Brian Hill, who ran for 982 career yards at the NFL level on 4.7 yards per carry.

St. Louis will be coached by former New York Jets first-round pick Anthony Becht, who played 11 years in the NFL before working as a tight ends coach at high school powerhouse IMG Academy. His counterpart on the other side, Hines Ward, is certainly more famous. Ward is a two-time Super Bowl champion and a Super Bowl MVP who has been coaching in college and most recently was the wide receivers coach at FAU.

San Antonio will have Jack Coan from Notre Dame at quarterback. Coan had a great 2021 season for the Fighting Irish, completing 65.5% of his passes for 25 touchdowns to just seven interceptions. He’ll be supported in the backfield by former Miami Dolphins running back Kalen Ballage, who has real talent despite being famous for his poor catches.

With the Battlehawks entering as the betting favorite and going up against a team with a head coach who has never coached before, I’m going to side with St. Louis.

Seattle +1 (-110)

We end with the most exciting team in the XFL. The Seattle Sea Dragons will be quarterbacked by Ben DiNucci, who appeared in three games for the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. While he wasn’t able to cut it in the NFL, he did show good skills during his time on an NFL field and should have no problem against XFL defenses, especially since he’ll be throwing to Josh Gordon. Yes, that Josh Gordon, who signed with Seattle in a final attempt to get back to the NFL.

Gordon will be joined in the receivers’ room by former Liberty receiver Kevin Shaa, who posted over 18 yards per catch in his last two years at Liberty.

The icing on the cake for Seattle is that they will be coached by former NFL Coach of the year Jim Haslett, who also brought with him offensive coordinator June Jones, who we already covered above as the master of the Run & Shoot offense. That should be fun with DiNucci and Gordon.