First reported by Mike Mitchell of Sports Illustrated the Battlehawks have quickly brought in an additional Linebacker to replace “rookie” Johnny Buchanan. On March 5th, the Battlehawks added Drew Lewis a veteran of the 2020, and 2023 versions of the XFL, in addition to playing with the Houston Gamblers of the USFL in 2022.
Lewis comes to the Battlehawks, after posting 24 tackles for the Roughnecks and Brahmas in 2023. Prior to his time in 2023, Lewis totaled another 13 tackles with the Gamblers playing with the elite 2022 Defense. In 2020, Lewis cut his teeth with the June Jones’ Houston Roughnecks totaling 17 tackles as a reserve Linebacker. In the NFL Lewis has also spent time with the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, and New Orleans Saints after a standout career at Colorado.
Currently the Battlehawks roster 11 players at the Linebacker position. While Lewis has been given a great opportunity, the signing may be short lived with the first round of roster cutdowns starting on March 10, with rosters required to be at 58 players. Currently the Battlehawks return Linebackers like Mike Rose, Carson Wells, along with newly signed 2023 DPOY Pita Taumoepenu, in their hopes for making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
1 Comment
by Ken Granito
As teams jockey for position in putting the best players on the field, I laugh. I laugh because I am no one. Although I played high school footballa couple of years. I never coached, nor was a general manager, but sometimes things just make sense. I used to laugh because I never understood the NFL having 53 players active for game day and only 2 quarterbacks active. What a joke! You can have players active for the game that are backup players on special teams, but 1 reserve QB? The NFL is a multibillion dollar industry and they don’t realize they need 3 active QB. Enter Christian McCaffrey the QB and the 49ers Super Bowl hopes vanish. It took the NFL to look bad for them to change it. Imagine all the ad dollars that became worthless because everyone turned off the sets, their largest ad business having all their work of developing a point spread down the drain. Now we have the possibility of having 3 quarterbacks. Sometimes people with more money aren’t wiser they just have more money. As the UFL is in camp, there are only 3 teams that have a 4th QB in camp. 5 including the top 2 XFL teams only have 3. If you run the UFL, you need to ask yourself, which position can take everything you worked for and blow it up? Skip Holtz and Zach Potter know the answer. The hardest job to learn is quarterback. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a 4th QB in camp instead of a 14th member of the secondary or offensive line. It would make sense to me to get a 4th QB in camp. Maybe a young guy who can get great experience while giving the UFL a CRITICAL redundancy. If people tune in to see a match between the Defenders and the Battlehawks and the Defenders are playing a QB who was not in camp viewers might turn off the TV thinking, “what a joke!!!”. However, if a young QB say, Aqeel Glass, for example, went to camp, but was later cut among final cutdowns was re-signed he might be experienced enough in the scheme to let his talent show, making people think, “Wow what a story!”. What an opportunity this league provided. I expect football leagues to know better. I should not have to explain this.