Getty Former Raiders WR Martavis Bryant.
Back in 2020, it appeared the XFL was gaining momentum as a legitimate football league for fans to enjoy when the NFL season was over. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the league decided to cancel its remaining games, which led to it getting disbanded. However, the XFL wasn’t completely dead when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his business partners invested in bringing it back.
The league is full steam ahead with getting set for the season and just held its draft. The Las Vegas Raiders will be well represented in the XFL as a number of former players got drafted. Most notably, wide receiver Marcell Ateman went No. 2 overall for offensive skill position players to the St. Louis Battehawks.
Ateman came into the NFL as a seventh-round pick of the Raiders in 2018. He ended up starting six games as a rookie and had 15 catches for 154 yards. He stayed on the team’s roster for three more seasons but didn’t see a ton of playing time. He was a Jon Gruden favorite but the team moved on from him this year with the coach no longer around. He’s a big wide receiver at 6-foot-4 and his NFL experience should help him in the XFL.
Martavis Bryant Also Gets Drafted in Top-5
Ateman wasn’t the only former Raiders wide receiver to get drafted in the XFL. Martavis Bryant was selected with the No. 5 overall pick by the Vegas Vipers.
Bryant will be very close to his former team in Las Vegas now. Raiders fans remember the wide receiver well. Adding him was one of the first big moves Gruden made when he took over as head coach. He gave up a third-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft for Bryant. The Raiders ended up cutting him before the season just to re-sign him soon after. He played in eight games for the team and made 19 catches for 266 yards before getting injured and then suspended. He has not played in the NFL since.
The Raiders effectively threw away a third-round pick, which they did once again with Antonio Brown the following year. While the ending of Bryant’s NFL career was a disaster, he was a really good player for the Steelers. He had over 500 receiving yards in four of the five seasons he played. If he’s solved his off-the-field issues, he’s got the talent to light up the XFL. He’ll be playing under former Raiders Hall of Famer Rod Woodson in Las Vegas.
XFL Should Thrive in Las Vegas
Bringing in a flashy player like Bryant to the Las Vegas XFL team makes a lot of sense. When the league was having success in 2020, it was because it was more fun and less buttoned up than the NFL. With the Raiders having a nightmare season, there could be a lot of room for the XFL to thrive in Las Vegas.
It’s a party league in a party city and the Vipers are coached by a big-name Hall of Famer. The XFL will never compete with the NFL but Las Vegas could be a great place for it to really thrive. It should be interesting to watch.