Welcome back, Dragons?! Seattle one of eight cities confirmed for XFL’s 2023 relaunch

Is the third time the charm for the XFL?

Now free of Vince McMahon and under the ownership of (among others) Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the XFL is giving it another go in February 2023 after the start of the COVID pandemic prematurely shut down XFL 2.0. On Sunday the league announced which eight cities will have XFL teams, and Seattle is one of them.

The 2020 edition had the Seattle Dragons, although it’s unknown whether or not they’ll keep that team name upon relaunch. While the team wasn’t very good at 1-4, attendance and atmosphere for the two home games they did manage at Lumen Field before the league ceased operations was impressive. Keenan Reynolds and B.J. Daniels were among the former Seattle Seahawks who got to play for the Dragons.

Former New Orleans Saints head coach Jim Haslett will be the Seattle head coach, with run-and-shoot guru June Jones as the offensive coordinator, and former Florida Gators head coach Ron Zook as the defensive coordinator. Randy Mueller, who was the Seahawks’ Vice President of Football Operations from 1995-1999 (and part of the front office for much of the 1980s), will be Seattle’s Director of Player Personnel.

XFL 3.0 launches on Saturday, February 18th aka the week after the Super Bowl. The other teams announced will be in Houston, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Dallas, St. Louis, Washington DC, and Orlando. California and New York won’t have any representation on this occasion.