New QB getting up to speed quickly
After learning at about 9 or 10 Wednesday night that he’d be joining the San Antonio Brahmas, quarterback Kurt Benkert scrambled to pack and got in four hours of sleep before a 5:30 a.m. flight from northwest Florida to the XFL training hub in Arlington.
He underwent a brief physical before rushing to join the team for practice early Thursday afternoon. By the end of the session, Brahmas coach Hines Ward recognized just how fortunate he was to have Benkert in the fold.
On back-to-back plays Thursday, San Antonio lost starting quarterback Jack Coan to an ankle injury that is expected to sideline him one or two weeks, then saw No. 1 running back Kalen Ballage go down to an Achilles injury that is likely seasonending.
The blows only added to the toll of losing quarterback Reid Sinnett, who made his first start of the season last week but suffered a broken foot that will keep him out the rest of the year.
A Brahmas offense that already was floundering, ranking next-to-last in the league in both rushing and passing, “probably” will turn to Jawon Pass as the starting quarterback Sunday at Arlington, Ward said, while Benkert will have a role in the offense just three days after his first practice.
“Obviously it was unfortunate, but in my shoes I’m like, ‘Well, I have to really crash course this a little quicker,’ ” Benkert said. “We’ll see what it all shakes out like. We still haven’t come to a full decision there, but I’m going to be ready to go. I’ve had two practices under my belt, and we’ll see what happens.”
Benkert said he “didn’t feel like I had as much rust as I anticipated” in his first practice, and Ward said Benkert went 5 for 5 in his debut drill against San Antonio’s No. 1 defense — “pretty impressive for a guy who is coming off the street.”
After playing two years at East Carolina and two seasons at Virginia from 2014 to 2017, Benkert signed with the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent.
He spent the bulk of the next three years on the organization’s practice squad, then joined the Green Bay Packers for 2021 and spent part of the 2022 season with the San Francisco 49ers.
The XFL announced Dec. 12
that he had been assigned to the Houston Roughnecks, but Benkert said the news was a product of “miscommunication,” as he had never officially signed with the league.
He wanted to keep his NFL options open, and the prospect of spending time with his wife and daughter was more appealing than jumping into January training camp for the upstart league.
Through the past few months, Benkert bought a piece of land, started construction on the family’s home, launched a business and wrapped up a few consulting projects, he said.
He also last month participated in Streamer Bowl 2023, partnering with popular streamer Turner “Tfue” Tenny to win a charity Fortnite tournament, earning an $81,500 contribution to the Makea-wish Foundation.
But Benkert said he stuck with his fitness routine, throwing at least a couple of times per week as he ramped up preparation for the NFL’S offseason activities. Watching the Super Bowl gave him the itch to return to the field, and Ward pitched him on how the Brahmas were built and how close the team was to flipping its 1-4 record.
“Just a good time in life right now for me,” Benkert said. “I’m excited to get this thing going, get the crash course and learn as much as I can as fast as I can to get out there.”
The greatest challenge will be getting up to speed with the Brahmas’ offense, but Benkert said the volume of plays on his plate is low enough to be manageable. Though the concepts in the passing attack are familiar, the terminology remains a hurdle.
Benkert compared this week to playing in the Senior Bowl in 2018, when he and a team of college allstars
had three days to learn a system.
One advantage he’ll have in the XFL comes from the league’s more open lines of communication, with coaches allowed to speak into players’ helmets at any point up to and through each snap.
The offensive skill players also wear earpieces in their helmets, so unlike the NFL, coaches rather than quarterbacks can be responsible for shifting receivers who line up out of position.
“It’s really beneficial for a guy like me to be able to come in, go sling it around and have some fun,” Benkert said. “I’m sure I won’t want it that much as I get a few weeks down the line, but Week 1, coming in on two days to prep, I think it’s going to be really helpful to turn down that learning curve.”
Ward said Benkert “will get his opportunity at some point during this game” with “a little small package” of plays.
Pass, the Brahmas’ expected starter, played his final college season at Prairie View A&M in 2021, arriving as a graduate transfer from Louisville and throwing for 2,672 yards with 16 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. He added 271 yards and four scores on the ground.
To acquire Benkert’s rights from Houston, San Antonio traded linebacker Drew Lewis, who notched 16 tackles, a sack and three tackles for loss in five games.
His older brother Ryan Lewis is a defensive back for San Antonio, and father Will Lewis is the team’s director of player personnel.
“That was a tough one, man, but it was part of the business,” Ward said. “It was nothing to do with him, it was just more the needs that we had to have another quarterback, and thank God we got Kurt.”