Former Minnesota Vikings in the XFL: Week 1 recap
By Chris Schad
Beavers shines, Badet disappoints for Dallas
One of the more disappointing teams in the opening week of the XFL was the Dallas Renegades, who rolled out to plenty of fanfare thanks to the combination of head coach Bob Stoops and quarterback Landry Jones. The success on the field didn’t follow, however, as Jones sat out with an injury and the Renegades fell to the St. Louis Battlehawks by a score of 15-9.
While we could dissect the performance of former Minnesota Golden Gophers quarterback Phillip Nelson, we’ll keep things to former Vikings and one that stood out was the performance of former fourth-round pick Willie Beavers.
Beavers may have been aided by volume as the Renegades’ air raid offense led to a 43-12 run-to-pass ratio, but the Western Michigan product did well, not allowing a single pressure and grading out 15th among all offensive linemen in pass blocking in Week 1 according to PFF. His run blocking grade of 43.3 was much worse, but it could be thrown out due to a small sample size.
The other notable former Vikings player for the Renegades is Jeff Badet, who has been in training camp several times for Minnesota, but he hasn’t been able to crack the final roster. As the fourth overall pick in the XFL Draft, Badet had some big expectations, but Nelson couldn’t find his presumed top target as he only caught three passes on four targets for nine yards.
Former Vikings practice squad linebacker Greer Martini also suited up for Dallas, recording a pair of tackles.