With Week 1 of the XFL now behind us, it’s safe to say the first week was a huge success from both a DFS and a betting standpoint. The biggest contests on both DraftKings and FanDuel filled early and the overall product the XFL gave us was solid.
Each week I will be giving you a team-by-team breakdown of everything you need to know from last week including usage notes, trends, depth chart changes, and everything in between.
A quick note on some league averages: We anticipated around a 65%-35% pass-rush ratio in this league and Week 1 fell just short of that with the league averaging a 59.7% pass to 40.3% rush ratio. Teams ran an average of 57.9 offensive plays per game (pass/rush plays only).
Editor’s Note: The premium stats in this article are provided by Pro Football Focus along with our own manual charting
Seattle Dragons
Seattle was one team we struggled a little to get a handle on heading into Week 1, so it was refreshing to finally see how players were utilized here. Slot man Austin Proehl led the team with 10 targets and his 24.4% market share of the team’s targets ranked fifth in the league. He was the highest-scoring receiver and second-highest scoring player overall in the league with 26.1 DK points while being drafted on just 5.16% of teams in DK’s $350k contest. He accomplished this despite playing on just 69.6% of his team’s snaps, finishing second behind Keenan Reynolds who did virtually nothing while being in on 65-of-69 of the team’s snaps. Dontez Byrd was a distant third WR when it came to usage in Week 1 drawing five targets (one in the red zone) while seeing about a 58% snap share. This offense was only able to support one wideout in Week 1 and considering the heavy usage we saw from Reynolds, I would anticipate him having a big day eventually.
For RBs, this backfield was a straight-up committee as I had anticipated between Ja’Quan Gardner (19 snaps), Kenneth Farrow (29 snaps), and Trey Williams (22 snaps). Williams was the one that wound up having a nice day for fantasy purposes because he found the end zone on a short pass. He was the preferred passing-down back, tying Dontez Byrd for the third-most targets on the team with five. He wound up at the bottom of the pecking order in the backfield with just three rushing attempts. Gardner technically led the backfield on Saturday with nine carries (two in the red zone) and a 42.9% market share of his team’s rushing attempts, but ran no routes. Kenneth Farrow was the most efficient back of the three averaging 5.9 YPA on just seven carries and also led the backfield in snaps at 42% while tying Williams with 16 routes run. This backfield will be a mess to try and predict going forward, but Farrow had the best two-way usage in Week 1.
As far as injuries are concerned here, QB Brandon Silvers suffered what is assumed to be a mild ankle sprain during the game. Initial reports are optimistic on his Week 2 status, but it’s worth watching closely. BJ Daniels is Silvers’ backup.
DC Defenders
DC came away with the win in Week 1 largely in part thanks to Seattle turning the ball over three times in the game. Aside from that, the game was much closer than the final would imply statistically. For wideouts, Eli Rogers led the team with a meager six targets, but it was good enough for a 26.1% market share of his team’s targets which ranked fourth in the league. There were many who were shocked by seeing Rashad Ross listed fourth on the team’s depth chart heading into Week 1, it’s clear the team didn’t think he was quite ready. Ross only played on 59% of the snaps and saw a meager two targets. Of course, he turned one into a touchdown. Malachi Dupre finished second on the team with four targets but led all DC wideouts with a 77% snap share.
The DC backfield was primarily run by Jhurell Pressley who was one of just four RBs to register double-digit carries in Week 1. He wasn’t able to turn that into much, finishing with just 6.9 DK points while carrying the second-highest RB ownership percentage on the big slate at 29.8%. Something to keep an eye on here though was that Donnel Pumphrey had two of the team’s three red-zone touches on the day and also saw three targets. DC was one of only two teams who opted for a more run-heavy approach in Week 1 as they ran the ball 54.9% of the time while passing just 45.1%. They also nursed a lead for most of the second half.
Los Angeles Wildcats
The Wildcats aren’t taking their 17-37 loss from Week 1 lightly as head coach Winston Moss immediately fired defensive coordinator Pepper Johnson on Monday while also letting go defensive team captain and linebacker Anthony Johnson. There were disputing reports on a starting QB heading into this game and Chad Kanoff became the man under center in place of Josh Johnson who is reportedly doubtful for Week 2 already. Kanoff came away from this game banged up as well and the team may have no choice but to run Jalan McClendon out there which could be a disaster for the offense.
Nelson Spruce feasted in Week 1, leading the league by a wide margin with 15 targets (two in the red zone) and a commanding 35.7% market share of his team’s targets. Jordan Smallwood finished second on the team with seven targets despite finishing fourth amongst LA WRs with a 57.7% snap share. Saeed Blacknall actually saw the field for the most snaps amongst LA wideouts at 76.9% but finished the day with no catches on four targets.
Elijah Hood saw the second-highest snap percentage amongst RBs last week at 70.5% and was one of four backs to see double-digit carries (12). Unfortunately, he posted a meager 3.6 YPA and ran zero routes, limiting his upside. Larry Rose and Dujuan Harris combined for just five carries behind Hood with Rose seeing one carry in the red zone.
L.A. finished the week running the second-most offensive plays with 66, though they ranked last in the league with just 3.9 yards per play while allowing a league-high 5.6 yards per play to Houston. The QB injury situation will need close monitoring here throughout the week and we will keep you up to date on that.
Houston Roughnecks
Houston came out guns blazing in June Jones’ WR-centric offense. Cam Phillips was one of just two offensive skill position players to be in on 100% of his team’s snaps in Week 1. He wound up tying Sammie Coates for the team lead in targets (9), though Phillips did a lot more with his than Coates. Kahlil Lewis ran exclusively from the slot, finishing with six targets (one in the red zone) and caught one of P.J. Walker’s four TDs. Both Phillips and Lewis finished the week as top-five WRs at DK. Nick Holley was the No. 4 WR, operating out of the other slot spot in the 4-WR base.
James Butler was one of the biggest surprises of the week out of Houston’s backfield. He led all RBs in Week 1 with a 71% snap share and 56.3% market share of his team’s carries. He also led all players with three red-zone touches. He was the overall RB1 with 19 DK points. Houston’s volume isn’t great out of the backfield, they ran it just 29.1% of the time which was the second-lowest mark in the league. But there was no competition in the backfield whatsoever from Andre Williams (two carries, eight snaps) or De’Angelo Henderson (one carry, two snaps). Henderson appears to have gotten hurt in the first quarter, which explains Butler’s usage. Williams does not look like a fit in this June Jones offense.
Tampa Bay Vipers
The Vipers were a mess in Week 1 and saw starting QB Aaron Murray get rotated out in the second half in favor of Quinton Flowers. At WR, Daniel Williams was a bit of a surprise as the clearcut WR1. He was one of two offensive skill position players to see 100% of his team’s snaps in Week 1 and led the team with nine targets. He finished with six catches for 123 yards, good for 21.3 DK points and a WR3 finish while being owned on just 3.1% of rosters. Jalen Tolliver was right behind Williams with eight targets (two in the red zone) and only missed two snaps in the game. TE Nick Truesdell saw the third-most targets on the team and was also in on 95.8% of the team’s snaps. This team had a very concentrated pass game that was rounded out by Reece Horn who saw about 70% of the team’s snaps and those four players combined for about 85% of the team’s targets.
At RB, De’Veon Smith dominated the touches out of the backfield with 16 carries which was second-most in the league. He also ran a route on 44.7% of his snaps, though Murray blindly targeted him just once in the afternoon. Jacques Patrick was the primary backup but offered little value despite seeing eight carries and three targets in the game.
New York Guardians
The Guardians played good, clean football in Week 1 and got major help from their highly talented defense in the win. The team actually wound up running the least offensive plays in Week 1 with just 43. Aside from their defensive scores, the team also converted both of their red-zone drives into scores as well. Matt McGloin looked pretty sharp in his debut and locked in on his slot man, Joe Horn Jr., a team-high eight times (once in the red zone). TE Jake Powell was surprisingly second on the team with six targets. Both Colby Pearson and Mekale McKay led the team in snaps at 96.1% and 94.1%, though each saw just four targets. Pearson found the end zone while McKay led the team with 58 yards. McKay had the second-highest ownership percentage last week amongst WRs on DK at 37.1%. Teo Redding played just three snaps and Austin Duke zero.
What was expected to be a three-man committee in the backfield was dwindled down to two with Tim Cook and Darius Victor seeing virtually identical snap shares. Victor wound up the team leader in carries with 9 while also running 11 routes to Cook’s eight. Justin Stockton got just one snap all game.
We are still waiting to hear on an injury update for two of New York’s top wideouts, DeAngelo Yancey and Tanner Gentry who are both currently on short-term IR. We could see Yancey back this week as he was reportedly working on the sidelines with coaches last week. Both are considered questionable.
Dallas Renegades
What was expected to be one of the hottest offense’s in the league coming into the season was easily the biggest mess of all. Dallas entered this game as high as 10-point favorites by some sportsbooks and wound up losing at home to the BattleHawks. Dallas abandoned the run quickly in this one throwing it 78.2% of the time, the highest mark in the league. While that sounds like a recipe for success in fantasy, it was actually a complete disaster as no player had more than six targets or a 14% market share of targets over 43 pass attempts. Jeff Badet ran low-aDOT drag routes all game and finished with just four targets and 3.6 fantasy points. Dallas was led by a combination of slot man Flynn Nagel, TE Donald Parham, and RB Lance Dunbar who each had six targets, though no player was on the field for more than 61% of the team’s snaps. Phillip Nelson was predictably a massive downgrade on Landry Jones (knee), who is expected back for Week 2.
The backfield was an equal mess as pass-catching specialist Dunbar led the team with five carries while the highest-owned RB on the slate, Cameron Artis-Payne, contributed just two carries on 51% of the team’s snaps. He also ran 23 routes, which was the most amongst all RBs and eight more than Dunbar. Artis-Payne finished with four targets while Dunbar saw six.
St. Louis BattleHawks
The biggest underdog of Week 1 pulled off the biggest upset of the week going into Dallas and stealing a win. St. Louis led the league with 68 offensive plays while also being the most run-heavy unit rushing 61.8% of the time. They were much like Tampa in the sense that they had a very focused offense that surrounded itself by four primary pass catchers. TE/WR hybrid Marcus Lucas led the team with six targets though he ranked fourth amongst wideouts on the team in snaps. L’Damian Washington led the team with a 96% snap share and caught all five of his targets but only came up with 20 yards to show for it. Slot man De’Mornay Pierson-El led the team with 64 receiving yards while Alonzo Russell was the only wideout to find the end zone. Note that TE Cole Hunt was carted off with an injury in this game which could open up more looks for AAF standout Wes Saxton down the road.
The running game gave us a surprise here as it was led by Matt Jones, not Christine Michael. Jones wound up leading the league with 21 carries and even ran 13 routes as well. Michael handled only seven carries and wound up with zero yards on the day. When the dust settled, Jones out-snapped Michael 48-23.
Jordan Ta’amu used his athleticism to run all over Dallas, finishing as the QB4 and only 0.6 fantasy points separated him from Chad Kanoff at the QB2 spot. In different game scripts, Ta’amu’s passing volume will rise.
