Tag: Saeed Blacknall

Every Penn State player in the XFL in 2023

Looking for every Penn State player on an XFL roster in 2023? Here they are.

As the curtain closes on the NFL’s 2022 season with the crowning of a Super Bowl champion, the football calendar moves next to the start of the XFL regular season. The XFL is back under new leadership headlined by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and the latest attempt to inject new life into the XFL brand kicks things off on Saturday, February 18.

When the new XFL season begins, there will be some familiar names for Penn State fans to keep track of. When the league kicks off, there will be five former Nittany Lions scattered across the league’s eight teams.

Former wide receiver [autotag]Saeed Blacknall[/autotag] will not be on one of those rosters despite previously being profiled by the league in an effort to showcase some players leading up to the start of the season. Blacknall was on the roster for the Vegas Vipers, but he did not appear on the team’s official roster shared by the league in an Instagram post a week and a half prior to the first games being played. But the Vipers do have a former Nittany Lion on the roster looking to make an impact this spring.

Here is a summary of where each former Penn State player is in the XFL and where they have been since their final days in a Penn State uniform.

Penn State photo archive: 2016 Big Ten Championship Game

Let’s take a look back at some of the best photos from Penn State’s 2016 Big Ten championship game win

After scoring a surprising upset of Ohio State in 2016 with a blocked field goal returned for a game-winning touchdown, Penn State changed the entire outlook of the Big Ten championship race. Michigan, who had dominated Penn State earlier in the season, took the inside track to the East Division race but stumbled a few weeks later against Iowa, leading to Penn State having a path to its first Big Ten championship game appearance. As the Nittany Lions closed out its regular season without a loss, and with Ohio State handing Michigan a second conference loss, the Nittany Lions advanced to Indianapolis as the East Division champion thanks to their head-to-head upset of the Buckeyes.

Penn State faced Wisconsin, the Big Ten’s West Division champion, with a spot in the Rose Bowl up for grabs. Penn State was an underdog against the Badgers, who wee ranked just ahead of the Nittany Lions in the College Football Playoff rankings going into the game behind a strong defense and running game. And to their credit, Wisconsin flexed early on Penn State with their ground attack and some big plays from the defense. Penn State wasn’t rattled, however, and stormed back and came out on top of a back-and-forth game in the second half with [autotag]Trace McSorley[/autotag] and [autotag]Saquon Barkley[/autotag] electrifying the offense.

Here is a look at some of the images from Penn State’s first Big Ten championship game.

Steelers officially sign WR Ray-Ray McCloud; release WR Saeed Blacknall

The Pittsburgh Steelers made a wide receiver transaction on Friday.

We knew when word came down that the Steelers were going to sign wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud that there would be a corresponding roster move.

On Friday, the Steelers made that move with the release of wide receiver Saeed Blacknall.

Expect McCloud’s 2020 contributions to be on special teams as kick/punt returner; still, with the wide receiver designation, the Steelers have a big decision to make to trim their receiver corp before the season kicks off.

In his time with the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers, McCloud notched 14 punt returns for 102 yards and nine kickoff returns for 192 yards.

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What attracts the Steelers to the crop of former XFL players?

The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed more XFL players than any other team.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed more former XFL players than any other team in the league.

Wide receiver Saeed Blacknall became the sixth player inked to the Steelers from the now-defunct league on Monday.

Blacknall joins offensive tackle Jarron Jones, defensive tackle Cavon Walker, defensive tackle Dewayne Hendrix, safety Tyree Kinnel and long snapper/linebacker Christian Kuntz.

There will be more XFL players who sign NFL deals and get a look in training camp — so far there have been 15. When the Alliance of American Football folded in 2019, more than 50 players signed NFL contracts, but less than half ended up making a team’s roster or practice squad.

So, why are the Steelers attracted to the league’s former players?

Due to the scouting restrictions and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, post-draft college free agency is going to be chaotic, which is partially why general manager Kevin Colbert was a proponent of expanding the 2020 NFL Draft by three rounds — a suggestion that was shot down by the NFL.

Colbert feels more comfortable in signing former XFL players because of access to medicals, game footage, and recent scouting reports.

“It was good that [XFL] players are made available to us because going through this draft as we are with some limited information, that could curtail some of the college free agents that we’re able to sign just on a knowledge of who they are type basis,” Colbert said in a recent Steelers Nation Unite Huddle.

“So, knowing these players a little bit better, we feel it was important to add as many as we thought could help us in terms of being competitive players for training camp.”

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Steelers announce signing of former XFL WR Saeed Blacknall

The Steelers add another big, fast wide receiver.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers announced on Monday they had signed former Penn State wide receiver Saeed Blacknall. Blacknall played with the Nittany Lions from 2014-2017 and had 50 career receptions in 30 career games. Known for his deep speed, lack of production really hurt his draft stock.

After entering the league as an undrafted free agent, Blacknall spent time with the Los Angeles Raiders, Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals in 2018 and 2019 before joining the Los Angeles Wildcats of the XFL in 2020.

Here is a great cutup of Blacknall in college showing his ability to work at the third level and us his size on contested catches.

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