P.J. Walker is the star of the XFL. The Houston Roughnecks’ quarterback keeps making highlight-reel plays.
P.J. Walker has been the breakout start of the XFL in its infancy. The Houston Roughnecks quarterback added to his resume in Week 4 that must have NFL scouts awaiting a chance to sign him.
He can run and hit opponents. Watch this shot delivered in the third quarter to a Dallas Renegade:
He wasn’t able to get the three-point conversion on the drive that gave Houston a 21-11 lead. However, Walker displayed some amazing moves on one earlier in the Texas Throwdown.
P.J. Walker picked up a botched snap and turned it into a spectacular touchdown run.
P.J. Walker has an arm and some pretty fantastic legs, too.
The Houston Roughnecks’ quarterback added to his burgeoning XFL legacy in the second quarter against the Tampa Bay Vipers Saturday.
Walker had already thrown an 84-yard TD pass to Cam Walker when he took a snap — or tried to grab it — in the second quarter. No problem for the former Temple star. He picked the ball up and took off for the end zone, finding it without being touched. The place goes for eight yards in the stats but more than that when you watch it:
We are running out of adjectives to describe what PJ Walker can do on a football field.
P.J. Walker and Cam Phillips of the XFL Houston Roughnecks connected for their fifth TD of the season in the first quarter Saturday.
The most lethal combination in the XFL, P.J. Walker and Cam Phillips, connected again in the first quarter of the Houston Roughnecks’ game with the Tampa Bay Vipers on Saturday.
Walker, the Patrick Mahomes of the new league, appeared to be running on the play. However, as the QB got to the line and was about to be dragged down, he unleashed a pass that was tipped. It wound up in the hands of Phillips and 84 yards later he was in the end zone.
PJ Walker completes the 84-yard TD WHILE getting dragged down.
Current XFL star quarterback Phillip “P.J.” Walker had a turn in the NFL before, but this might wind up being his big break.
On August 31, 2019, one week after Andrew Luck shocked most of the NFL by retiring from pro football, the Colts released quarterback Phillip “P.J.” Walker, leaving the team’s quarterback room with just one guy — eventual starter Jacoby Brissett. Walker, a four-year starter at Temple from 2013 through 2016, had bounced on and off the Colts’ roster and practice squad for three years before his final release, joined the XFL to find a better chance at a starting role.
However, it wasn’t the last time the NFL took a look at him — the Steelers asked the XFL for permission to sign Walker for a week, as they saw Walker as a similar player to Lamar Jackson, and Pittsburgh wanted Walker for a one-week contract to help them get ready for the Ravens’ offense with Walker as the sub.
XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck, Andrew’s father and a former NFL quarterback himself, nixed the deal.
“Once you’re under contract with the XFL, you’re under contract, regardless of position,: Luck told Thomas Bassinger of the Tampa Bay Times last December. “We’re not trying to be a development league for the NFL. That’s not our raison d’être. Having said that, I hope that every one of the [Tampa Bay] Vipers players has a chance to go to the NFL after our season because that means we’ve done our job in terms of playing good football. Bust your butt, play hard, have a chance to get great game tape and you’ll get a shot in the NFL. We are a league of opportunity.”
Part of Walker’s opportunity in the XFL came from Andrew Luck, who told his father to make sure his former Colts teammate was in the new league. Walker wound up with the Houston Roughnecks, coached by longtime run-and-shoot advocate June Jones.
Jun 12, 2018; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts quarterback Brad Kaaya (9) and quarterback Andrew Luck (12) and quarterback Phillip Walker (5) talk between drills during minicamp at Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center. (Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports)
“June had the list of quarterbacks. He and (personnel director) Randy (Mueller) had scouted him. I was delighted they wanted P.J.,” Oliver said. “Ultimately, that’s the kind of guy that’s perfect for our league and perfect for June because he fits June’s system so well and has a chance to play and prove himself.”
So, while Colts head coach Frank Reich and general manager Chris Ballard couldn’t reconcile Walker’s NFL potential, it’s interesting that Andrew Luck could. It’s an even more interesting story now, because two weeks into the XFL’s inaugural season, Walker is not only tearing the league apart statistically, he’s looking very much like the model of a modern NFL quarterback in many ways. Through two games, he’s completed 43 of 69 passes for 442 yards, seven touchdowns, one interception, and a league-high passer rating of 108.5. Only Washington’s Cardale Jones has more completions of 20 or more air yards than Walker’s five, and his performance under pressure in the pocket has been a pleasant surprise.
If you want a guy who can complete passes sidearm, like Patrick Mahomes? Well, Walker can do that.
And if you want a quarterback who can square his shoulders and throw on the run? Yep. He can do that, too, as he showed on this touchdown pass to receiver Cam Phillips.
Of course, there’s more to the oeveure for any NFL quarterback. And there are things Walker needs to work on. In the 2019 preseason for the Colts, Walker completed just 50% of his passes — 32 of 64 — for 349 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, six sacks, and a quarterback rating of 53.4. His mechanics in the pocket were inconsistent at best, leading to precision issues that led to rogue incompletions…
…and interceptions that just aren’t a good look at the NFL level.
Then again, a lot of the missteps that happened for Walker in Indianapolis had something to do with a rotation of receivers he hadn’t developed a chemistry with. So, this is where Walker gets to prove that he can do it at a starting level. Yes, it’s against second-level defensive personnel running relatively vanilla schemes, but it’s the job of every NFL coach and personnel executive to isolate a player’s traits and attributes as much as possible outside the complications of opponent and teammate strebgth.
It could be that Walker is one of the 2020 XFL players who give the NFL that opportunity in a different way. If that’s the case, perhaps that Andrew Luck guy has a future in scouting.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
Quarterback P.J. Walker of Houston’s spring pro football team has shown characteristics that should entice to Houston Texans to give him a workout.
There is a huge storm brewing in Houston at the quarterback position and his name is not Deshaun Watson. Yet it’s another quarterback with similar traits and has been taking a new league by storm.
Meet P.J., quarterback for Houston’s spring pro football team. Walker has seven touchdowns which are the most touchdowns in the entire spring league at the quarterback position.
Watching Walker play has left many Bayou City sports fans with a question: have the Houston Texans thought about potentially signing Walker?
The Texans will have to address the backup quarterback situation this offseason anyway. After all, A.J. McCarron and Joe Webb are both set to be free agents on March 18 when the new NFL year kicks off at 3:00 p.m. Central Time.
General manager Bill O’Brien (getting used to that part) has a great opportunity to sign a quarterback with similar traits as Watson.
Signing Walker as the backup is a no-brainer, or at least giving him a proper workout to evaluate how he would fit into O’Brien’s offense. Should, Heaven forbid, Watson were to miss any action, O’Brien wouldn’t have to change the entire game plan if Watson were to come out of the game at any point. Houston could plug-and-play with Walker.
Another great vote of confidence in Walker’s abilities is former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck pushed his dad, Oliver Luck, the commissioner of the revamped spring league, to find a landing spot for Walker. The former Temple Owl came to Indianapolis as an undrafted free agent in 2017 and spent the next three seasons bouncing off the practice squad, getting signed to a reserve/future contract at the end of the season, and getting cut at the end of every preseason. Nonetheless, Luck was there in Indianapolis for two of those three seasons to see how hard of a worker and how talented Walker really is.
At just 24 years old the Texans would get a young, exciting player that has the potential to play. Hopefully, O’Brien sees the same thing as Luck.
The last game for Houston’s spring league team is April 11, and the Texans’ offseason workout program kicks off on April 20. There is enough of a gap for Walker to transition from one league to the next.
FOX’s Greg Olsen noticed a Roughnecks player was in the neutral zone on the pick and Houston should have been flagged. QB Jordan Ta’amu felt he had a free play and made the risky pass. However, the officials missed the call.
Houston’s P.J. Walker is adding to his resume of exciting plays as Week 2 of the XFL continues.
Houston Roughnecks quarterback P.J. Walker has picked up where he started in Week 1.
After throwing four TD passes against Los Angeles, Walker is putting on a show against the St. Louis Battlehawks in a Week 2 game Sunday.
Roughnecks QB P.J. Walker was recommended to XFL commish Oliver Luck by his son, Andrew. Walker spent 2 seasons on Colts practice squad. Andrew told his Pop, “Dad, you’ve got to sign him. He can play!” Threw 4 TD passes in opening victory over LA. Maybe Andrew should be a scout!
Watch the electrifying former Temple star take off on an 11-yard run. Hate to say it again, but he is in Houston, home of the Texans’ Deshaun Watson, who has made some plays of this ilk.
Trying to tackle PJ Walker seems like an incredibly unfortunate thing to have to try to do
Walker then broke contain and found Cam Phillips in the back of the end zone for a touchdown to make it 21-6 with less than two minutes to go in the first half in Houston.
Phillips did make a mistake after the TD, taking off his helmet. In the XFL, that is an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty enforced on the PAT. So, the one-point extra point from the 17 failed.
Oh, and the league knows how dominant Walker has been through six quarters.
He posted an impressive college career at Temple, and had a short stint in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts, on and off the practice squad from 2017 to 2019 before taking the reins of the Houston Roughnecks’ offense in the second debut of the XFL.
He was one of the most recognized players in the league’s opening weekend, completing 23-of-39 passes for 272 yards with four touchdowns and one interception on Houston’s 37-17 home victory over the Los Angeles Wildcats.
At Temple, the 5-foot-11, 214-pounder finished his college career as the Owls’ all-time leader in pass attempts (1,410), completions (803), passing yards (10,273), TD passes (72), and total offense (11,100).
[lawrence-related id=25071]
He brings a lot to the table — especially in terms of mobility and arm strength — but there’s still likely a long road ahead and some fine-tuning to do before he prepares to take his career to the next level yet another time.
Roughnecks coach June Jones has experience in coaching against Walker, and is eager to see what the quarterback can accomplish at the helm as the season progresses.
“He did some really good things,” he said. “I was kind of anxious to see him because I had played against him in college. When the play breaks down, you want the quarterback to create things, and he did a lot of stuff… that kind of was his magic in college, too. We get him plugged in, and if he can continue to get better in his reads, I think he has a real chance to be a pretty good player.”
Walker was pleased with his performance, which was received with chants of “P.J., P.J., P.J.” by a crowd of over 17,000 as he walked off the field in TDECU Stadium on Saturday night.
[lawrence-related id=25065]
But like Jones, he knows the work is far from over after just the first game of the year.
“I missed a lot of reads to be honest… some reads I should never miss,” he said. “I’ve gotta go out there next week and not make the same mistakes… I’ve got to take what people give me and not try to force it downfield.”
Obviously it’s still early on, but in a league hungry for talented quarterbacks, a developed Walker could catch the eyes of the NFL teams like the Titans, who have experienced a lot of turnover at the position with a history of signing subpar backups who never seem to be able to answer the call like Zach Mettenberger and Blaine Gabbert — just to name a couple.
Walker and the Roughnecks will look to remain undefeated as they face the visiting St. Louis Battlehawks in Houston on Sunday at 5 p.m. CST.
For football fans not ready to start the long offseason, the opening weekend of the new XFL was a potent fix to fuel the football addiction. The spring football league dominated social media, the stadiums were filled with passionate supporters …
For football fans not ready to start the long offseason, the opening weekend of the new XFL was a potent fix to fuel the football addiction.
The spring football league dominated social media, the stadiums were filled with passionate supporters developing their fandom, and the overnight television ratings reflected its success.
But, the Alliance of American Football enjoyed similar success on its opening weekend exactly 12 months earlier, and it lasted only eight weeks before the money ran out and bankruptcy ensued.
Football skeptics question whether the XFL can sustain its success in a way the AAF couldn’t, but the brainchild of Vince McMahon and Oliver Luck has what last year’s startup was missing: quarterbacks.
The name recognition won’t be there for the average NFL viewer, but the performances across the first four games of the XFL gave fans all the excitement they needed.
Former Ohio State fourth-round pick Cardale Jones continued his undefeated record as a starting quarterback with the weekend’s highest passer rating of 116.7 (16-of-26 for 235 yards and two touchdowns) for the D.C. Defenders.
Houston Roughnecks quarterback P.J. Walker earned some attention with 272 yards and four touchdowns, and one of the league’s headliners, former Pittsburgh Steeler Landry Jones, didn’t play for his Dallas Renegades because of injury.
The different for the XFL isn’t just the talent at the position. It’s the rule changes and system in place to eliminate some of the barriers to effective passing.
The league put headsets in the helmets of every offensive skill position player, and they don’t turn off, so coaches can talk directly to their players on the field.
It was designed to increase the speed of the game and make an abbreviated play clock more manageable, but the byproduct was extra guidance in the ear of the quarterbacks and receivers.
They still have to make accurate throws, but the increased communication seems to mitigate some playbook and decision-making issues that often plague ineffective passers.
It wasn’t a universal solution to poor quarterbacking — Aaron Murray of the Tampa Bay Vipers completed less than 50 percent of his passes — but seven of the eight offenses executed scoring drives well enough to keep fans engaged.
The AAF saw four of its eight teams make quarterback changes in last year’s opening weekend, and 15 different players attempted more than 30 passes over the course of the spring. When the league folded, only two teams had a positive touchdown-to-interception ratio.
XFL quarterbacks are making plenty of mistakes too. If they were polished passers, they’d still have NFL contracts. But even the ones on the losing side of the scoreboard showed a baseline consistency that was lacking in the Alliance.
Pair this improved passing with stronger television deals and a more publicized build-up, and the XFL is in a great position to learn from the failures of the past and entrench itself as a spring football staple.
