Don’t look now, but yet another alternative to the NFL is popping up and ready to kickoff their inaugural season this winter. This time around it is a familiar face — Vince McMahon’s XFL is back. And with the league’s kickoff scheduled for shortly after the Super Bowl this February, the eight team league is looking to fill out rosters. In preparing for next week’s first XFL league draft, the league has slowly but surely released their player pool — which features several former Miami Dolphins looking for another crack at playing football.
Here are some of the familiar names to Miami Dolphins fans who are hoping to get drafted in next week’s XFL Draft.
OL Michael Dunn
RB De’Veon Smith
DB Jamar Summers
LB Tre Watson
OL Terry Poole
K Andrew Franks
LB Frank Ginda
RB Jonas Gray
WR Matt Hazel
WR Reece Horn
Several of the former Dolphins on the list came to Miami from 2019’s football alternative, the Alliance of American Football (AAF). Those talents included OL Michael Dunn and DB Jamar Summers — both of which were added to the Dolphins’ roster this offseason but failed to make the final 53-man roster. Others, like LB Tre Watson, came to Miami as promising undrafted free agents. Watson made a strong push to make the 2019 Dolphins before becoming a casualty of the numbers game.
The most accomplished Dolphin on this list? K Andrew Franks, who hit 78.4% of his 37 field goal attempts during his two year run as Miami’s kicker between 2015 and 2016. Franks has not kicked in the NFL again after being waived by Miami on September 3, 2017. His best kick? a career long 55-yard field goal on Christmas Eve in the final seconds against Buffalo to send the teams’ Week 16 contest to overtime. Miami would go on to win and move to 10-5 on the season.
