Niko Lalos entered the NFL as an undrafted rookie in 2020 and has only played in six games so far in his NFL career, but he got some experience this year that helped his growth, in the XFL.
Lalos ended last season on the Saints’ practice squad, then went to the XFL, where he played for the Seattle Sea Dragons and was one of the top defensive ends in that league. Now he’s back with the Saints, competing for a roster spot, and he had three sacks in Sunday night’s preseason game. Saints coach Dennis Allen credited Lalos’ XFL experience this spring for his continued growth.
“He’s a guy that’s worked extremely hard,” Allen said of Lalos. “He was on the practice squad last year. He went and played in the XFL this year. I think that was good experience for him to get out there and play. He’s been putting some good stuff on tape. It’s a position that we’re pretty deep at so there’s a lot of competition there. We’ll evaluate where that tape was, but he did do some good things tonight.”
The XFL and USFL haven’t developed big fan bases, but spring football does have the potential to be valuable to the NFL in the way it develops players, not to mention in the way spring leagues test out new rules that the NFL has said it will study and continue implementing. There’s value in the minor leagues of the sport.
