With 4 months to go until the XFL's rebooted 2020 season kicks off, details for the draft have been unveiled.
The league announced that the draft will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 15 and Wednesday, Oct. 16 with player selections announced on the XFL's website, Twitter page,Instagram page and the social media channels of the eight XFL teams.
Over the two-day draft, each team will have to fill a 71-man roster.
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The players who make up the draft pool are being announced as the week progresses, but here are some of the initial names. One of the most interesting for Tampa sports fans is former Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Roberto Aguayo.
#XFL announces first group of players to enter #XFLDraft pool
— XFL (@xfl2020) October 7, 2019
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The catch is that the players will be selected from positional groupings that make up a 5-phase draft.
Each team will be assigned one QB before anything. Then the phases are as follows:
1. Skill Players (QB, RB, WR, TE)
2. Offensive Line (OT, OG, OC)
3. Defensive Front Seven (DL, LB)
4. Defensive Backfield (CB, NB, SS, FS)
5. Open Draft (all remaining players after positional drafts, in addition to P/K/LS)
The XFL says the draft pool will include about 1,000 football players, all of whom accepted a commissioner's invitation and passed a background check.
In phases 1-4, each team will choose ten players for a total of 40. In phase 5, each team will choose from the pool of remaining players to complete its initial roster.
A snake format will be used so the selection order within each phase reverses after every round. The order was determined by a lottery.
In the first phase, the Tampa Bay Vipers have the 5th pick.
The draft will take place via video conference call but will not be televised.
