David wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:08 am
Marc Trestman is now 0-2 in the XFL. Chicago Bears fans would rather forget his tenure. He was fired after a short stint as OC with the Ravens, then was a bust in Toronto....I am starting to think that his success with the Als had much more to do with a lot of on-field talent and a Hall-of-Fame QB.
DH
Popp is nothing without Trestman, and Trestman is nothing without Popp.
Hall of Fame caliber QBs make a lot of coaches better.
I actually liked the old XFL, the problem was you had to wade through the carnival barker atmosphere to get to the talent ( a lot of which was imported from Canada).
While I think the rules make the game better (and borrowing from the CFL will do that), the QB play is not good and in general defensive talent is better than offensive talent, which is a drag on the games. I'd expect a 15% drop off in attendance between Weeks 1-3 and a 30% drop overall by the conclusion of the season. The tv ratings might sustain themselves until March Madness kicks in in the US; then, I suspect crickets.
The good news, unlike the AAF, is that there's enough money here to sustain an
eight team league for three seasons. Being centrally owned helps this.
But guys aren't making $80k for that much work; likely closer to half of that.
Now, let me give you one thing the XFL does that I am impressed with, that I wish the CFL would do in some form or fashion.
https://www.xfl.com/en-US/teams/team9/t ... m-9-dallas
This is a great idea. Rather than individual team practice squads, there's a single leaguewide practice squad from which teams
must call players up from after Week 2. It would benefit the CFL greatly to do this either with Canadians who are out of CIS eligibility or Americans. Or both.