Former Gulf Shores High School standout Brandon Silvers will open the new XFL season as the starting quarterback for the Seattle Dragons, and he is one of several players with South Alabama roots on rosters as the league prepares to debut next week.
Dragons coach Jim Zorn announced the decision as XFL teams finalized their rosters. For Silvers, it is a settled job after several unsettled years: he left Troy holding numerous school records, got a look from the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted rookie in the summer of 2018, then revived his career in the short-lived Alliance of American Football, where he started two games for the Memphis Express and threw for 799 yards and four touchdowns. He signed with the New York Jets in April and was waived after minicamp in May.
Other Mobile-area players on XFL rosters
Wide receiver Sammie Coates, a Leroy High alum who starred at Auburn, is with the Houston Roughnecks. He played 12 games for the Houston Texans in 2018 after earlier stints with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, and he was released by Kansas City in May 2019.
Guard Quinterrius Eatmon, a former Vigor standout who played college ball at South Florida, joins Silvers in Seattle. He was cut by the Oakland Raiders in 2015 and the Carolina Panthers in 2018, and appeared in two games for Hamilton in the CFL in between.
Tackle Matt McCants landed with the St. Louis Battlehawks. He has NFL time with the Bears, Browns and Raiders and played for the Birmingham Iron in the AAF. McCants played tuba in the Williamson High School band before joining the football team as a senior, a late start that still earned him a scholarship to UAB.
Linebacker Tre Williams, out of St. Paul’s and Auburn, is on the Los Angeles Wildcats roster. He signed with the Jets as a free agent after the 2018 draft but was released because of a neck injury, then signed with Detroit in February 2019 before being released in May and serving a two-game league suspension for an undisclosed violation.
One local name just missed
Former Murphy and Minnesota receiver and kick returner K.J. Maye was among the final cuts by the XFL’s Tampa Bay Vipers. Maye spent 2016 on the Tennessee Titans practice squad and has been in camp with the New York Giants and New England Patriots, as well as the CFL’s Edmonton club.