Unbelievable: UFL Defender set to leave the League after...... see more

On the heels of an XFL championship game appearance, the D.C. Defenders aimed to build on last year’s 10-2 season — and much of that effort went into bolstering what already appeared to be a strength.

As they prepared for their first season in the United Football League — the spring league created by the merger of the XFL and the USFL — the Defenders already had two former Washington NFL safeties in D.J. Swearinger and Montae Nicholson. They also brought back cornerback Michael Joseph, who intercepted four passes last season, with an XFL-leading two pick-sixes.

Then in January, the team signed two former NFL first-round cornerbacks: Gareon Conley (taken 24th by the Oakland Raiders in 2017) and Deandre Baker (taken 30th by the New York Giants in 2019). They also selected 2023 all-XFL safety Deontay Anderson in the dispersal draft after the XFL and USFL combined. A secondary brimming with NFL experience seemed set to rule this spring, but reality was slightly more complicated.

“Even though you have established players, they still have to be productive players,” said Defenders defensive backs coach Vernon Dean, an NFL veteran who won two Super Bowls with Washington in the 1980s. “Name doesn’t mean anything without production because, at the end of the day, everybody here is [working] for an opportunity.”

The Defenders are 3-3, and their offense is last in the eight-team UFL in time of possession and third to last in yards, keeping the defense on the field more than anticipated. As a result, D.C.’s defense is third to last in the UFL in points allowed per game (25.0) and next to last in yards allowed (313.2).

Even in the UFL, name recognition only goes so far, and the lack of production meant changes were needed. The Defenders released Swearinger following a 45-12 loss to the St. Louis Battlehawks in Week 5. That blowout was the Defenders’ first defeat at Audi Field; they entered the matchup with a 10-0 mark at home since 2020.

“It’s part of the business. It’s part of life,” Swearinger, 32, said of his release in an Instagram video last week. “You gotta roll with the punches. I’m not mad about it. I’m not too bothered, although I did want to play football, finish this season out. But, hey, life is gonna life.”

The Defenders released Swearinger to distribute more playing time to younger members of the secondary, such as Nicholson, 28, and Anderson, 26.

“We are in the production business. You got to produce,” Dean said. “It just came to a point that we thought that it was time for these younger guys, to give them an opportunity, because Montae is very talented. So is Deontay Anderson. He’s very talented. Those are talented players. They’re bigger, they’re younger, they’re faster. D.J. was smart; he was good for the room. He helped take these guys’ football IQ to a different level. It was just a matter of the numbers that we had.”

The younger players turned to the UFL because their NFL paths filled with interruptions and detours. Conley, who has battled nerve damage and compartment syndrome in his leg, hadn’t played since suiting up for the Houston Texans in a playoff game on Jan. 12, 2020. He said his goal is to make it through this season healthy and showcase the talent that boosted him into the NFL draft’s first round.

“I still got it. I can still play,” Conley said of what he has learned about himself while playing spring football.

“The UFL has reiterated that I’m resilient,” he added. “I’ve been through a lot on and off the field. To be able to come back again … [after] four years of literally not playing a competitive snap and being able to play — being able to run in general is big for me — but being able to play football again, no matter what level, has taught me and shown me that I’m resilient.”

Baker, who was convinced to join the UFL by Defenders defensive end (and former University of Georgia teammate) Davin Bellamy, appeared to be a star in the making with the Giants until he was charged in an alleged armed robbery in May 2020. The Giants released him that September. The charges were dropped that November, and Baker joined the Kansas City Chiefs, playing two games in 2020 before suffering a broken femur. He played 10 games in 2021 but hadn’t played competitive football since.

Baker said the criminal allegations and subsequent release from the team that drafted him changed his career trajectory and his perspective on the field.

“If I have one bad play, I won’t dwell on it,” Baker said. “I’ll just move on to the next play and fix it and correct it throughout the game. You can’t just focus on one mistake or bad thing that happened.”

Nicholson also exited the NFL after off-field incidents. He was arrested and charged with assault after a late-night fight in December 2018; the charges were dropped in May 2019. In November 2019, his girlfriend died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his home. Washington cut him in March 2020.

Like Baker, Nicholson said he has reflected on the events and choices that upended his professional life.

“I learned that even though I was an NFL player, a professional athlete, stuff like that can still happen to me,” Nicholson said. “Some people say because I’m in such a position that the target is bigger, but I wasn’t walking around like that. I do have to hold myself to a certain standard as well off the field. I’m learning that more. With that comes patience, consistency, obviously accountability, keeping the correct people around me — because I was enjoying being an NFL player, I was enjoying playing football at the highest level without really paying attention to, or acknowledging what it really, really took to succeed.”

Dean said patience was required with Baker and Conley, given their injury histories, but he eventually realized why the Defenders added them.

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Unbelievable: UFL Defender set to leave the League after…… see more

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