Cowboys practice squad WR signs with XFL team

| American Football | 02/24/2023

By Todd Brock

One Cowboys wide receiver is planning to keep playing football right through the NFL offseason.

Brandon Smith has been signed to the active roster of the XFL’s D.C. Defenders. The Defenders won their opening game of the league’s 2023 schedule, but they did so with a rather lackluster passing attack as D.C. quarterbacks Jordan Ta’amu and Deriq King combined for a total of just nine completions in a 22-18 win over the Seattle Sea Dragons. Only one Defenders player recorded multiple receptions on the night.

Smith, the 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound 24-year-old out of Iowa, signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and has spent the past two seasons on the Cowboys practice squad.

The highlight of his Cowboys career thus far? A pretty sensational toe-tap touchdown catch in the team’s 2022 preseason win over the Seahawks.

The newly-relaunched XFL is not meant to be a developmental “feeder” league for NFL talent, according to the league’s ownership. But XFL players can indeed sign onto an NFL roster following the season, which concludes in mid-May.

So theoretically, Smith could be back with the Cowboys when the team’s offseason program begins. And the game reps he is set to receive in the XFL might ultimately prove beneficial in a Dallas WR room that, at least last season, was chock full of inexperienced youngsters jockeying for a leg up on the depth chart.

Smith and his new Defenders club will face the Vegas Vipers on Saturday.

Story originally appeared on Cowboys Wire