Former Seattle Seahawk talks about his transition to playing in the XFL
Dec 12, 2019, 10:36 AM | Updated: 10:38 am
Former Seattle Seahawk B.J. Daniels. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Quarterback B.J. Daniels got to be part of a Super Bowl win with the Seattle Seahawks in 2014. Over five years later, he’s returning to play football in Seattle, this time in the debut season of the reminagined XFL.
Daniels was selected by the Seattle Dragons in the “open” phase of the draft in October, and now comes back to the city where he spent the formative years of his NFL career. As for why Seattle’s passionate fan-base might want to tune in come 2020, to him, the answer is simple.
“I mean you have another opportunity to see football in spring,” he told KIRO Nights. “And you know this entire state supports the Seattle Seahawks, and I’ve been a witness of that. To continue to watch football and cheer for your home team is a really big reason why I feel like it’ll be a great experience for a lot of us.”
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Beyond that, there are a handful of interesting quirks in the XFL when it comes to scoring, including an extra point system that completely does away with kicking, while offering a team the chance to score as many as nine points in a single possession.
After a touchdown, a team will have three options: To run a play from the 1-yard line for the chance to score a single extra point, go from the 5-yard line for 2 points, or back up to the 10-yard line for 3 points.
Tweaks like those are what Daniels sees as a huge factor setting the fledgling league apart.
“There’s a lot of kinky rules to it on the special teams side,” he described.
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Under the tutelage of Seahawks legend and Dragons head coach Jim Zorn, Daniels will compete for the starting job with former Troy University QB Brandon Silvers. He’ll work to prove himself leading into the start of the season, taking lessons learned playing behind Russell Wilson into the next phase of his professional football career.
“That’s a huge thing to always work hard and go after what you know you want to go after, and that competition raises the level of a lot of players and people on your team.”
The Dragons’ season opens up on Saturday, Feb. 8 in Washington, D.C against the Defenders. The team’s first home game at CenturyLink Field will be the following week on Saturday, Feb. 15 against the Tampa Bay Vipers.
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