Pirates Build Roster for 2025 Season
Published on March 18, 2025 under Indoor Football League (IFL)
Orlando Pirates News Release
LOWELL, MA - The Massachusetts Pirates currently have 32 players under contract as they prepare for the 2025 Indoor Football League season which opens on Friday, March 21 at 7:05 pm (eastern) at the Tsongas Center against the Jacksonville Sharks.
The Pirates return 10 players from last year's Eastern Conference Championship team with four on offense and six on defense. The offense has also added two players who have previously played in Massachusetts.
On offense, the most experienced group are the receivers as three of the IFL's best are back. Thomas Owens, the Pirates all-time leading receiver returns after a year where he caught a total of 20 touchdowns which ranked him fifth in the league. A two-time All-IFL First-Team selection, Owens owns nine regular season and seven team playoff records.
Also coming back is Isaac Zico. An All-IFL First-Team selection in 2023, Zico missed half of last season with injuries but did start in all three of the Pirates playoff games.
Teo Redding played in every game last season and finished among the league leaders with 60 receptions and 710 receiving yards.
Isaiah Coulter, a former fifth round draft pick of the Houston Texans, Damon Hazelton, R.J. Mobley and Jovonhn Tucker are also candidates to make the team at wideout.
The man throwing the football for the Pirates will be a newcomer. After the retirement of Alejandro Bennifield, the MVP of the 2021 Pirates IFL Championship team, quarterbacks Kenji Bahar and Aeneas Dennis will cover that role. Bahar was a starter for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL in 2023.
Running back Pooka Williams Jr. who played in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as the XFL and the UFL has the task of replacing Jimmie Robinson, the Pirates All-Time leading rusher. He will run behind an offensive line that has experience. Justin Strong will also be in camp at running back. In May of 2024 Strong, who played collegiately at Southern Illinois University, went to training camp with the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League as an undrafted free agent and later in August worked out for the Seattle Seahawks.
Up front will be Navaughn Donaldson. The 6'7" 335 lb. former All-IFL Rookie Team member returns for his third season with the Pirates. Donaldson has played in 28 games over the last two seasons. Joining him will be two former Pirates. Jordan McCray, an All-IFL First-Team performer from the Pirates 2021 Championship team is back along with Tommy Champion who was with Massachusetts in 2023. Also ready for camp is Nick Ford, who checks in at 6'5", 317 lbs. He was a three-time All-Pac-12 performer at the University of Utah.
On defense, six members of the Pirates return from last season. The most decorated being defensive lineman Guy Thomas. Thomas was an All-IFL Rookie Team selection. Last year Thomas appeared in 13 regular season games, making eight starts. He finished the regular season making 44 tackles with 14.5 tackles for a loss with 4.5 sacks. In the postseason Thomas made 16.5 tackles including 3.5 tackles for a loss and a sack. His combined totals of 60.5 tackles ranked him 20th in the IFL. His 18 tackles for a loss was second best in the league and his 5.5 sacks placed him seventh.
Joining Thomas will be Ifeanyi Maijeh who played two games with the Pirates last season and Jeblonski Green Jr., who played in the championship game last season with one tackle, a pass broken up and an interception.
New to the team are D.J. Dale, a member of the Alabama National Championship team in 2020, Terry Beckner Jr., a seventh round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2019 NFL Draft who later played in the USFL, and Dominic Quewon, who has been in NFL and Canadian Football League camps. Michael Thompson also joins the team in camp. Thompson, who played at Long Island University, attended rookie minicamp with Tampa Bay last spring.
At Linebacker are Vosean Joseph and Jamoi Hodge. Joseph, a former 2019 fifth round draft pick (147 overall) of the Buffalo Bills most recently was with the Ottawa Redblacks in the Canadian Football League. 2022 saw Joseph playing in the CFL with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In two games that season he appeared in eight games making 14 tackles with one sack. In 2023 he played in two more games with Hamilton recording two stops and then one with the Ottawa Redblacks where he made one tackle.
Hodge, who played at TCU, attended the rookie minicamp of the Miami Dolphins in 2024, is also in the linebacker group.
Seven defensive backs are slated to go to camp and three of those players were with the Pirates last season. Matt Elam who was a first round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2013 is back for his second season. Elam had 52 tackles in 15 regular season games. He also had a "pick-six" in the Pirates win over Green Bay to clinch the Eastern Conference title. Also returning are C.J. Holmes and Paris Ford. Holmes made four starts with 13 tackles and three passes broken up.. His playoff interception against Green Bay was one of four turnovers the team caused in the Conference Championship win. Ford, a veteran of the USFL, appeared in eight regular season games last year, starting five times making 16 tackles with one for a loss while breaking up three passes.
They will be joined by defensive backs Maquis Waters who has played in the CFL along with Sal Lupoli Jr. from Bentley College, and Donnie Lewis Jr., a former seventh round pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2019. Lewis Jr. also played with the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL. Marcis Floyd, who played collegiately at Murray State and the University of West Virginia, rounds out the group.
Kicker Timmy Bleekrode completes the training camp roster. Bleekrode kicked in college at Nebraska and Furman University.
Indoor Football League Stories from March 18, 2025
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