XFL DC Defenders

Well-Traveled D.C. Defenders Quarterback Jordan Ta'Amu Looks to Flip the Script in XFL Championship

Published on May 11, 2023 under XFL (XFL)
DC Defenders News Release


The football journey of D.C. Defenders quarterback Jordan Ta'amu reads like a verse of the classic song, "I've Been Everywhere."

Ta'amu has played everywhere. High school football in Hawaii. Junior college in New Mexico. Divison I football in Mississippi. Eight different cities across 10 different contracts in three different leagues as a professional. In less than a decade, he has played for teams in five different time zones.

Mind you, he is still only 25 years old.

But through all these different locations - from Roswell, N.M., to St. Louis, to Charlotte, N.C., to now Washington D.C. - the highest accolades have not followed Ta'amu.

That started to change this spring. Last week, Ta'amu won the XFL Offensive Player of the Year award. He said he had never won an award like that. "I don't think I ever got offensive player of the year for any league," he quipped.

On Saturday, when the Defenders play Arlington at 8 p.m. EDT in the XFL Championship in San Antonio, Ta'amu has a chance to lift a trophy - something he has never done, either.

"I've been in championships before in high school, state championships and lost every single one," Ta'amu said. "Being able to have this championship in front of my eyes and ready to go, I'm super excited."

Like his counterpart in Arlington, Luis Perez, Ta'amu's journey has taken him from NFL camps to the XFL in 2020 to NFL camps once again to the USFL last season and back to the XFL this year.

That has provided him the opportunity to learn from plenty of quarterbacks. With the St. Louis Battlehawks in 2020, he played with Taylor Heinicke. He was on practice squads for teams quarterbacked by Super Bowl champions Patrick Mahomes and Matthew Stafford.

"I took little parts from different areas to help me become the person I am today, if it's all the way back from high school to junior college to Ole Miss," Ta'amu said. "Learning from Patrick Mahomes how to be a leader, how to take every day just being yourself and at the same time preparing every day as a champion. That's what Mahomes did. That's what I learned a lot from whenever I was with them."

But Ta'amu has never been able to stick along for a long time, enduring the quarterback shuffle many players face when they don't have an opportunity to prove themselves on the field at such a difficult position.

Last season, Ta'amu proved his talent once again in the USFL. He was the league's leading passer but no NFL teams came calling.

The NFL may have overlooked him but not Defenders head coach Reggie Barlow, offensive coordinator Fred Kaiss and director of player personnel Von Hutchins.

"That style quarterback that we wanted, it was Ta'amu to a T," Barlow said "At the time, he was still obligated to another league so there had to be some conversation between him and his agent on whether or not he would stay in that league or come with us. Thank God he came with us."

The Defenders had the strongest quarterback room in the league this year with Ta'amu, D'Eriq King and Eric Dungey. Ta'amu has been the Day 1 starter for the team but King has played a critical role rotating in as an impact backup.

For some, giving up snaps may have caused chemistry issues or friction within in the team. That's not the case in D.C. Both players have accepted their roles and thrived.

Ta'amu threw for 1,894 yards and 14 touchdowns (with just three interceptions) while leading the league with 8.3 yards per attempt and a 39.3% first down percentage. He also rushed for 298 yards with 10 runs of 10+ yards, which tied him for third in the league.

"The misnotion is that he's an athletic quarterback that runs," Barlow said. "But this year, I think he was able to show that he can make all the throws, deep ball, ball over the middle. He's throwing it everywhere. He's been really good at it. He's taken care of the ball, throwing the ball at a high percentage."

The first half of the year, All-XFL running back Abram Smith ran the show as the Defenders offense focused on dominating on the ground. The plan worked as D.C. jumped out to a 5-0 start.

But as defenses keyed in on trying to stop Smith and the run game, they discovered D.C. was more than happy to let Ta'amu destroy them through the passing game.

The first half of the XFL season, Ta'amu averaged 131.6 yards per game in the air with only one scoring pass. The second half of the year, including the playoff game, Ta'amu upped his average to 249 yards and 2.5 touchdowns per game.

"He carried the team for the last stretch there," Smith said. "He carried his load. He came into the quarterback that he needed to be."

The Defenders will need that quarterback against Arlington, which has one of the stingiest defenses in the league.

Just a few weeks ago, the Renegades almost upset the Defenders in D.C. by keeping Ta'amu to under 200 yards passing. It was the only time in the second half of the season Ta'amu failed to eclipse 200 yards.

But Ta'amu is ready for the spotlight, and for his chance to finally lift a championship trophy in glory.

"This is probably the happiest I've ever been on a team, especially with these guys and the coaches and the players," Ta'amu said. "They make it so easy to be around and come to work every day and be willing to win games."

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