USFL 2022: New Orleans Breakers Preview

USFL – Our USFL team previews push on, as the season draws ever nearer—pending, of course, the outcome of the court case between old and new leagues being heard today as this goes live. We have now covered three of the four preseason favorites: the Michigan Panthers, the Tampa Bay Bandits, and the Philadelphia Stars. Today, we’re finishing up the top foursome with the New Orleans Breakers.

New Orleans Breakers

Coaching Staff

Larry Fedora returns to the head coaching ranks to lead the Breakers into action. Fedora was a college coach from 2008 to 2018, first with Southern Miss and later with North Carolina, compiling a 79-62 record on the way. He’s known for his love of the spread offense and high-flying, up-tempo football in general—when taking the North Carolina job, he quoted George Patton in saying “Instead of waiting to see what might develop, attack constantly, vigorously and viciously. Never let up, never stop, always attack.” Don’t expect the Breakers to play passive football, in other words.

With Austin Davis under center at Southern Miss, Fedora’s offenses shattered school records, setting the four most prolific offensive seasons in school history. He went bowling all four years and even got the Golden Eagles to 20th in the AP Poll (and 32nd in F+) in 2011. That got him the job at North Carolina, where things went well for five years, peaking in 2015—an 11-3 season, 15th in the AP poll and ninth in F+. But things collapsed pretty quickly after that. In 2017, the Tar Heels fell to 3-9 due to massive offensive turnover, a bout of injuries, and some poor strategic decisions from Fedora. Things only got worse in 2018—coaching blunders, terrible recruiting, and horrible PR moves from Fedora (he suggested that new fair catch rules on kickoffs would cause the United States to collapse and said that the U.S. had the greatest military on Earth because we’re the “only country which plays football,” all of which came after a question about CTE). Fedora had to be let go, and indeed he was. Since then, he has spent time as an analyst for Texas, and then the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Baylor in 2020, where they reached the heady heights of 92nd in offensive F+.

Fedora has a long history as a successful head coach, but it has been six years since he last had a winning record. He’s coming back to the USFL partly in search of a redemption arc.

Offense

The Breakers’ primary quarterback will be Kyle Sloter. Sloter went undrafted out of Northern Colorado in 2017 but has been in the NFL ever since, albeit as a practice squad player who has never appeared in an NFL game. He has spent time with the Broncos, Vikings, Cardinals, Lions, Bears, and Raiders, constantly floating around the bottom of the league. He has had some major preseason numbers: 74.0% completion rate, 8.1 yards per throw, 11 touchdowns, and only one interception on 150 passes 2017 to 2019, as he was clearly a step above the other fourth- and fifth-string players he was up against, but not quite good enough to lock down a third quarterback slot. He has begun to fall out of favor at the NFL level, however—he was essentially on a practice squad constantly between 2017 and 2019, but spent most of the 2020 and 2021 seasons at home, occasionally getting calls when injuries or COVID required another arm as emergency insurance. Our own Mike Tanier once called him one of the best-kept secrets of the NFL draft. Sloter will be hoping to be not quite so much of a secret with a starting opportunity here.

Sloter will have to hold off Zach Smith, undrafted in 2021 out of Tulsa. Smith was praised as a prospect for his size, arm strength, and toughness, but dinged for his accuracy, decision-making, ability to handle pressure, ability to go through progressions, and ability to avoid interceptions and fumbles. Suffice it to say, Sloter is probably their man.

If you’re going to run a spread offense, you need plenty of receivers, and Fedora set himself up nicely there. For his slot position, he grabbed Taywan Taylor, who had 53 receptions for 697 yards and a pair of scores in a four-year NFL career with the Titans and Browns. He qualified for our receiver tables in 2018, finishing with a -2.7% DVOA and 43 DYAR. “Better than replacement level for the NFL” would be quite nice in a minor league, though Taylor did very little after being traded to Cleveland in 2019. He’ll battle the speedy Johnnie Dixon, the ex-Ohio State receiver, for slot work.

One outside receiver would appear to be Chad Williams, a third-round pick back in 2017 with 20 receptions and 202 yards to his name in the NFL. Williams had the ninth-lowest receiving DYAR for wide receivers in the 2010s at -141; a 37% catch rate will do that for you, and -8.3 DYAR per game is terrible. But that’s against NFL defenses and with Josh Rosen throwing him passes; Sloter may well be a better quarterback. The third receiver looks like it will be Shawn Poindexter, 6-foot-5, 213 pounds out of Arizona. He has spent time with the 49ers, but an ACL tear kept him from really doing much but rehab over the last few years.

The Breakers were one of the teams that benefitted from the supplemental draft, adding speedy (and oft-injured) running back T.J. Logan and pass-catching tight end E.J. Bibbs, both of whom have NFL experience. That helps fill a couple holes they had from the regular draft—their only tight end was blocker Sal Canella, while the speedy Logan not only has familiarity with Fedora from North Carolina, but also offers a different gear from the more physical Jordan Ellis. Don’t count out AAF/CFL/XFL veteran Larry Rose for taking some of those passing-down snaps from Logan, though the fact that Rose was cut from two of those leagues doesn’t exactly bode well here.

Defense

Fedora likes to blitz early and often, and the Breakers got first dibs on pass-rushers (due to getting the last pick at quarterback). The first defensive player drafted in the league was Davin Bellamy, the ex-Georgia end. Bellamy’s thin and doesn’t have the muscle to make it in the NFL, but he’s slippery and has nice long arms—good for 13 sacks as a Bulldog, if not good enough to be drafted or stick around on a practice squad. He and Georgia Tech’s Anree Saint-Amour make up the Breakers pass rush, supplemented by supplemental draft pick Shareef Miller, a fourth-round pick by the Eagles in 2019.

But it may be the secondary that ends up as the best unit for the Breakers’ defense. All five of their top corners—Adonis Alexander, Ike Brown, Manny Peterson, Derrick Jones, and Ja’len Embry—are known for their speed and athleticism first and foremost, to the point where it almost seems like a running gag when going through their pre-draft scouting reports. Jones and Alexander were drafted in the NFL, though neither have appeared in a game since 2018.

There is, however, a problem with Jones—he may not be eligible for the USFL! Jones has been bouncing around since he last was on an NFL team in 2019, spending time with the XFL’s Team 9 and the Seattle Dragons. Earlier this year, he signed a futures contract with the Calgary Stampeders. He then signed a separate contract with the USFL, and was drafted. You can’t, uh, do that. Jones has released screenshots of DMs and e-mail with the Stampeders, saying that he asked to be released and wasn’t, and he has said that he will not play for Calgary in 2022 under any circumstances, saying that nothing about the situation is professional. He also later tweeted out that he can’t play in the CFL anyway, because he found out he couldn’t get a passport due to unpaid child support payments.

@CFL @calstampeders It’s sad how y’all try treat athletes. I humbly made it clear that I wanted to weigh my options. Way before the @USFL draft. Is why I chose to enter the draft. I think It’s very unprofessional for y’all to ignore me until after the usfl draft. pic.twitter.com/wPStqaEAR6

— Derrick Jones (@islandboybonez) February 24, 2022

Again yes I signed a contract and later found out I couldn’t receive a passport and let it be known I would like to terminate the cfl contract, because of this issue.had nothing to do with usfl. I didn’t know about usfl at the time genius’s. pic.twitter.com/fu00EjeSj1

— Derrick Jones (@islandboybonez) February 25, 2022

Because of the lack of passport, Jones felt his CFL contract should be torn up. But the Stampeders opted not to terminate his contract, which they have every right to do—you can’t just unilaterally get out of a contract because you found a better deal elsewhere. Then again, guys like Paxton Lynch and Shea Patterson were released from their contracts to sign with the USFL; it looks like Jones was just ignored for some reason. If this gets sorted out, Jones will join the Breakers, if not … well, he won’t join the Stampeders, that’s for sure.

The Breakers were somewhat behind the eight ball, given the last selection of quarterbacks in the inaugural draft. And yet they have the second-best odds to win the league at the moment, sitting at +550 just behind the Panthers. I think it’s in large part due to those receivers—they have more NFL experience at receiver than any of the other teams in the league, and a well-respected NFL reserve passer in Sloter under center. To succeed in a league like this, sometimes all you need to do is do one thing well, and you can see the makings of a solid passing game here. I have little faith in Fedora after seeing how his last few attempts at running offenses have gone, but there’s enough talent here to expect the Breakers to look at least competent right out of the gates.

Headlines: NFL Connections

Last month, it was announced that the NFL and XFL had come to an agreement to work together going forward, collaborating on “select innovation programs”—mostly health and safety stuff, alongside testing rule variations and officiating tweaks and things of that nature. It was seen as at least a minor blow against the USFL—if the NFL was throwing any of its weight behind a rival spring league, that has to be bad news, right?

Exciting time in football as our @XFL2023 will join forces with the @NFL to collaborate on innovation opportunities to expand & grow the game of football.
As an XFL owner, my #1 priority will always be the players.
☑️👇🏾https://t.co/thLLn4NI9o#XFL#NFL#InnovationAndOpportunity pic.twitter.com/rr0WPc3ua3

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) February 21, 2022

But earlier this week, Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch said no, no, the NFL was supporting the USFL, too. “The NFL has actually been tremendously helpful to us in thinking through and setting up the USFL,” Murdoch said. “They haven’t tried to obstruct it at all. In fact, it’s the opposite. They’ve helped us.”

Murdoch did not go into any details about what this help entails, and there certainly wasn’t a news story on NFL.com announcing anything like the partnership they’ve agreed with the XFL. They do, of course, have a long partnership with FOX, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Daryl Johnston and Mike Pereira and some of the other names involved with the new USFL were talking with their friends and contacts in the league for suggestions and advice. But this sounds very much, to me, like a counter-shot against the XFL, a “no, wait, we’re actually the relevant ones here.” This is especially true when you consider Murdoch was speaking at an investor’s conference; it would be more newsworthy if he had come out and said “Oh, man, we were devastated when the NFL threw their weight behind The Rock. We’re just going to give up now.”

Honestly, that might be the best competition we get out of the league in 2022—the battle between the two future spring leagues, fighting over the same square of sporting landscape real estate. The world isn’t big enough for two spring football leagues, and each one is trying to jostle for position going forward.

I’ll get the popcorn.