Seattle Dragons and the XFL

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Meet the Seattle Dragons

Seattle was one of eight cities to receive a team. The Dragons will play their home games at Centurylink Field, which is the home of the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders.






There are just two weeks of the 2019 NFL season remaining, but shortly after the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers concludes, the XFL will begin its second installment, which includes a team here in Seattle, the.
The XFL differs from the football you may be accustomed to in the NFL and the NCAA. There are different rules, different ways of officiating and an entirely different game clock.

So, here’s the need to know about the XFL, its rules and the Seattle Dragons.
What is the XFL?

The XFL is a football league owned by Vince McMahon and Alpha Entertainment. McMahon is known for owning and operating World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
This, as mentioned, is the league’s second installment, having operated once before in 2001, though it appears the league will be operated much differently than its predecessor.
The league has eight teams: Seattle Dragons, Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, Los Angeles Wildcats, D.C. Defenders, New York Guardians, St. Louis Battlehawks and Tampa Bay Vipers.
The Dragons, Renegades, Roughnecks and Wildcats are in the Western Conference and the Defenders, Guardians, Battlehawks and Vipers are in the Eastern Conference.
All eight teams are owned by the league, rather than the ownership group model the NFL and other major sports use.
Each team plays 10 regular season games. The top two teams from each conference make the playoffs and face each other in the first round. The winners face off in the championship game.

Each team plays five home games and five away games and has no bye week.
The games will be broadcast on national TV, splitting between ABC, ESPN, Fox and Fox Sports 1. There are two games each on Saturday and Sunday through the regular season.
The league’s commissioner and CEO is Oliver Luck, the father of retired Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. He is the former president of the now defunct NFL Europe league, and was the president and general manager of the Houston Dynamo soccer team.
The league has six advisors listed on its website, including former Colts and Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and former Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears head coach John Fox.
Meet the Seattle Dragons

Seattle was one of eight cities to receive a team. The Dragons will play their home games at Centurylink Field, which is the home of the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders.

The Dragons are in the first game of the season on the road in D.C. on Saturday, Feb. 8. They have their home opener in Week 2 against Tampa Bay Saturday, Feb. 15.
Former Seahawks quarterback and quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn is the Dragons head coach and general manager. Zorn has head coaching experience, having coached the Washington Redskins.

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The Emerald City appears to be ready to embrace its newest professional football team.
The Dragons, Seattle’s XFL franchise, are currently leading the start-up league in season ticket sales, according to Jim Christman, director of communications for Seattle XFL.
Christman could not specify how many season tickets have been sold at this time.
The XFL, owned by WWE CEO Vince McMahon, is football’s latest attempt at a spring iteration of the sport following the NFL season -- serving as a minor league of sorts for potential NFL prospects and personnel. It will kickoff the weekend after the Super Bowl. The last professional spring football league in the U.S., the Alliance of American Football (AAF), lasted just two months last year before going bankrupt.
McMahon is reportedly invested around $500 million in the league for its first three seasons, a much steeper financial stake than his original WWE-inspired version of the XFL, which lasted just a year in 2001. The new version of the XFL is said to showcase a faster version of football with fewer play stoppages.
Jim Zorn, the first starting quarterback of the Seahawks and a member of the team’s Ring of Honor, is the general manager and head coach of the XFL Seattle franchise. He was the head coach of the Washington Redskins in 2008 and 2009.

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The Seattle Dragons face long odds of claiming this season's XFL Championship - at least according to Vegas oddsmakers.
Caesars Palace Race and Sports Book released its first over/under win loss totals for the 2020 XFL season earlier this week, placing the Dragons squarely in the bottom tier of the new 10-team league.
The Dragons, led by head coach and former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jim Zorn, have an over/under win total of 3.5, tying them for dead last with the St. Louis Battlehawks.
The Tampa Bay Vipers are considered the prohibitive XFL favorites with a 7.5 projected win total, with the Dallas Renegades and Houston Roughnecks in the second tier.

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For more than three quarters in the XFL season opener the Seattle Dragons were testing the heavily favored DC Defenders.
A few special teams gaffes (a blocked punt and an errant kickoff) seemed to be the biggest difference between the two teams on the field. In all, the Dragons lost by 12 points -- a small margin compared to the 20-point losses suffered by the Tampa Bay Vipers and LA Wildcats during opening weekend.


There is some room for optimism, at least on the defensive side.
Dragons linebacker Steven Johnson led all XFL linebackers with four run stops as he played a key role in a defense that allowed a league-best 2.0 yards after contact per rushing attempt.
When the Defenders dropped back to pass in Week 1 the Dragons pressured the quarterback on 48.5 percent of plays, the second-best mark in the league according to Pro Football Focus. Dragons defensive lineman Marcell Frazier pressured the quarterback on a second-best 36.4 percent of his pass rushing attempts, while defensive tackle Will Sutton tied for the most total pressures by an interior defensive lineman with five.

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Although Seattle lost to Dallas on Saturday, the Dragons have started one of the XFL’s coolest traditions. Every time Seattle intercepts a pass or recovers a fumble, the player coming up with the turnover puts on a ski mask.It may seem a little silly, but a new league needs to build traditions. The Dragons have what I think are the best uniforms in the league and are also colorful on defense. Even at 1-2, the Dragons still could be a playoff contender. The defense is opportunistic, but it needs to be more consistent after giving up 103 rushing yards and 274 passing yards to Dallas.