Building an Arena Football Team

As the AF1 embarks on the 2025 season, we’re all excited for games to get started. Week one is always a beginning that we look forward to. However, week one is hardly the beginning of the season. By the time we reach that point, there have been countless practices, tryouts, and more that led to this point. Even before that, coaches sat down and devised a plan for how they would put all of this together. 

We asked three of those coaches, "What does it take to put together an AF1 team?" Coaches Cedric Walker (Billings), EJ Burt (Orlando), and JR Wells (Washington) each discussed their priorities and how they built their respective rosters with us. 

CULTURE

While every coach we talked to had their own secret sauce for what made their team special, they also all had one thing in common. When you ask the coach what the most important part of building a team is, the answer is unanimous - culture. No positional group, experience level, or background stood above fitting within the fabric of the culture each coach was trying to create. 

Coach Burt emphasized that the most important part of what he was creating was a team of hungry players. Those without desire and wanting more out of their career need not apply. 

“I want guys who are hungry. I want to know that guys have goals. I don't want to, hey, I'm just here, I just want to play. I want to hear that you want to win a championship. Hey, my goal is to go to the NFL. My goal is to go to the CFL. My goal is to go to the UFL. I need to hear these things. I need to hear, one, a championship is important to you,” said Coach Burt. “Winning is important to you. And I also need to hear that you have dreams and aspirations of going, you know, again, to the NFL, CFL, UFL. Because if the guys are not hungry, they're going to settle for certain things that's not conducive to a championship. You know what I mean? If you want to go to the NFL, you're going to make sure that you're dominating every aspect of the game when you get an opportunity with me. And that's the kind of guy, you know, the kind of players that I'm looking for.”

Although that drive and desire are important for a number of reasons, it’s more of a team mentality that Coach JR Wells is looking for. As he looked to put together a Washington Wolfpack team that could rebound from a tough team, he was looking to do away with those who think only for themselves and instead are already focused on how they play into the fabric of the squad. 

“The most important thing for me is culture and community…I ask pre-qualifying questions. I ask like a variety of different questions, and the answers to those questions give me the energy to say, yes, you belong in what we're doing here and what we're building, or I don't think that what you have is what's going to continue building this culture and this community,” said Coach Wells. “we don't deal with the bad habits of these athletes, the athletes that feel entitled, like someone owes them something."

POSITIONAL GROUPINGS

On top of being sure that players fit into the culture of the program, the coaches obviously have a depth chart to fill out. Although they needed to make sure all spots on the field were covered, each coach had a slightly different idea of the priorities when it came to that portion of roster construction. 

For Coach Walker and the Billings Outlaws team, everything starts in the middle. 

“I started the process of building my team in the middle. So we go straight down the middle. We go with our fullback, then we go with our quarterback, then we go with our center, and then we go with our nose. Then we go with our plugger, and then we go with our middle guy,” Coach Walker explained. “I was taught that you build your team from the middle out to make sure that you're solid in the middle. Then you start building your team around it, you know, on offense, you know, our Xs are certain guys, our wings are certain guys, and our Zs are certain guys. So you start looking at that mode where they will fit.”

Outside of trying to build up the middle in Billings, Coach Walker also has a soft spot for a certain build of a player, and that’s one that doesn’t always get a second look in the outside game. 

“I like the undersized guards that are very athletic because now they can relate to play tight end here and also play fullback,” he said. “We look at those things for that fullback spot, because now, you know, you don't have the, in this league, we don't have the traditional running back. So you've got to be 240, 250, 260, and be able to block and then be able to run the ball and catch.”

For coach Burt over in Orlando, some of that thought is similar. He too likes to start in the middle with his roster construction. However, there is more of an emphasis on making sure certain positional groups are fully taken care of. 

“You always look at your quarterback position and you start out with your line. Those are kind of the positions that you start to look at first and then you kind of build from there to see what kind of receivers are on the market, what kind of defensive backs, and of course fullback, linebacker,” Coach Burt said. “But two of the top priorities are seeing what you can get at quarterback and line play.”

EXPERIENCE

Positions may be at the forefront of the player scouting these coaches do, but they also look for a particular level of experience. Some like players who have seen and experienced the indoor game, while others, like Coach Walker, prefer they haven’t. 

“Actually, I try to get young talent. When I say young talent, I trust my coaches. I learned that theory when I was in San Jose with Darren Orbeck and John Frye and Coach Terry Mallee in regards to getting young talent, see how they fit your roster,” Walker explained. “Guys who are fresh out, they have a lot to prove. A lot of the guys who come from the small D2, D3 areas, you really look at them. Then you look at some of the guys who are one year out that were in camp, that want to play and are still eager.”

Over in Washington, Coach Wells has a different philosophy. After a turbulent first year with few veterans on the squad, he has prioritized experience with the indoor side of things. 

“We need experience in this game. That's number one,” he emphasized. “It's important to have experience in the indoor game. I say it all the time, the transition from outdoor to indoor is extremely tough. An example is last year, my first signing was J.R. Nelson, he played for the Kansas City Chiefs, did some really big things in the NFL, but transitioning into the indoor game was really tough… Outdoor, you can kind of cover your tracks a little bit, you get beat, your hips don't open fast enough, you can recover a little bit, you can drive on a ball and make a tackle. But in here, this indoor war, it's not that simple.”

BRINGING THE TALENT IN

While having a game plan when it comes to roster construction is important, executing it is not a given. With eight other teams looking to fill those same spots on the roster, they have to convince the right players that their team is the one. And, as always, each coach has their own approach to do so - no not. 

For Coach JR Wells, he admits that it’s not easy out of the gate with a brand new franchise, but it’s something he’s making work. 

“As a new team starting up, obviously the budget isn't the greatest. Having a brand-new team expansion, you're not able to provide opportunities, and of course with a new expansion team, they're running to your team. They're running to the Albany’s and the Billings’s and the Orlando’s - the name brand teams. It's just like anything, when you go to a store, you're not going to get the knockoff per se; you're going to get the branded material kind of deal,” the Washington coach explained. “Honestly, I don't look to convince anybody, right? There's no selling in telling, and no selling in sharing. The most important thing for me is culture and community.”

Coach Burt doesn’t really believe in all that much convincing either when bringing players on board. Instead, he has a conversation about what the program is all about and the players will immediately know if they fit. 

“Mainly this is my philosophy - I feel that our goal is to win a championship. I feel that you can be a good piece, a great piece to what we're trying to put together here and it kind of takes shape from there,” Coach Burt said. “If a guy and you are on separate pages is right off the top. You know what I mean? It shouldn't take a whole lot of convincing, it's just whether your philosophies kind of match, your goals kind of align.”