One of the interesting things that is happening now is that since training camp, rosters are set at 80 players for each team with exemptions that could put you at no more than 90 players. That cuts into the XFL spots. Repeatedly, NFL scouts say, speed is lacking in the XFL and speed is what NFL teams most desire. I would be surprised if more than 10 XFL players were on NFL opening-day rosters. Yet, there is the constant reminder of Kurt Warner rising from the Arena Football League and Brad Johnson emerging from the NFL Europe and Eric Swann from semipro football.
Experts can blow it.
But for the most part, the XFL players remind me of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer being in the land of misfit toys, where there was a caboose with square wheels and a water pistol that shot jelly. That's the question they'll have to answer. If their league moves on, they will have the chance, as well as coaches and front-office people and everyone involved, because more experience and achievement there could lead to more opportunity here. This XFL to NFL transition is like a bubbling minefield, but the pressure is on each NFL franchise to check its notes and tapes twice. If a Warner or Johnson or Swann surfaces during the NFL season from this XFL crop, plenty of NFL scouts and teams that passed entirely on the group will have been fooled.