Head Coach Anthony Becht and General Manager Dave Boller got right to work after the Thanksgiving “Break”. In hopes of continuing to strengthen their roster for a 2025 championship the Battlehawks signed Two NFL veterans on Defense for the upcoming season.
Mack joins the Battlehawks after spending parts of Six seasons in the NFL. Coming from UT-Chattanooga (FCS), Mack was an All-Conference Defensive Lineman enroute to becoming a UDFA with the Tennessee Titans. Mack would appear in 25 NFL games recording 17 Tackles and 2.5 sacks throughout his tenure. Most recently he spent the 2024 training camp with the Miami Dolphins before being released.
Olakunle Fatukasi joins the Battlehawks after an All-Conference career at Rutgers, along with spending the past Three years on and off NFL rosters. The Rutgers Linebacker would join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a UDFA, making the teams 53-man roster before his release in December of 2022. Fatukasi would rebound quickly spending time with the Broncos, Patriots, Chiefs, and most recently with the Rams who released him during 2024 training camp. Fatukasi has appeared in 14 games recording 7 Tackles in his NFL career.
The Battlehawks currently have signed 45 players to LOI’s as the 2024-25 UFL Off-season comes to a close. With no Quarterbacks under contract, it appears that St. Louis will be extremely busy the next several weeks filling out the final parts of their roster. Last season the Battlehawks went 7-3 enroute to a loss in the XFL Conference Championship game.
2 Comments
by Ken Granito
The league has done a great job of signing players this year. 5 of 8 teams already have a headcount of 50 or greater and the league as a whole has only 135 more spots with about 75 more days before camps. So the league is in a good place. There are boxes that still need to be checked, however. The league has 20 signed quarterbacks and they have been stuck at this number for some time. Of all the positions on a football field the number one position that has the most preparation time is QB. The QB needs to know where everyone is on the field at all times so he requires the most preparation time. The only team I am convinced has their starting QB on their roster is the Panthers. The Roughnecks may as well as they have 3 talented QBs on their roster, but as they are all relatively inexperienced this remains in question. The Battlehawks currently don’t have any quarterbacks on the roster and while the Becht situation remains unresolved their quarterback situation is somewhat unresolved whether they had any signed or not.
The last 3 seasons the UFL legacy teams have largely brought 3 quarterbacks to camp. This may be slowing down the signing process as there are ONLY ten spots for a quarterbacks league wide and teams may be afraid to sign someone that doesn’t fit as there is only so much wriggle room. I think where it makes sense teams should bring a 4th quarterback to camp. Not only would this help a team that has say only 1 quarterback spot remaining sign another and get them ready for a camp battle while teams are waiting for their true target. IF the league goes to camp with 24 quarterbacks there remain only 10 openings, however I see there being many more opportunities. As many players are signed to NFL contracts. Ben DiNucci, Jake Luton, Adrian Martinez, Alex McGough, Jake Fromm, Jason Bean, Chris Oladokun, Kedon Slovis, John Wohlford and Bailey Zappe for starters. Of the ones that remain unsigned by the NFL, AJ McCarron, Matt Corral, Ian Book, Max Duggan, Luis Perez, Nate Sudfeld, Jordan Ta’amu, Nathan Peterman, Ian Book, Jarrett Guarantano, Case Cookus and Reid Sinnett. There are many more quarterbacks including former USFL and XFL quarterbacks who showed some promise not even on this list as the NFL quarterbacks may feel they have little push to play as they already set financially. I know we can’t have it all as there are limited resources, but as I look around at the inventory to say we can’t offer a 4th spot on some teams I would say is shortsighted. The 4th quarterback would serve multiple purposes. First it would give a team an extra QB to learn the system. In case there is an injury they can be re-signed and they will already know the playbook and terminology. Additionally as we will have two new teams next year, it will help keep those QBs engaged with the league and it would help those QBs stay “active” so it won’t seem so long away from the game.
by Ken Granito
Typo: I meant to say they have signed only 14 QBs so far.