Maine Mammoths 2018 Season Preview

Finally, Maine has an arena football team.

Portland, ME, for the first time since the AHL pirates moved to Springfield, MA and became the thunderbirds in 2016, has a team to cheer on at the Cross Insurance Arena.

This one being a first for the state: arena football. The Mammoths are set to play their first home in two weeks at the aforementioned arena, about seven months before the ECHL Mariners open at the same venue.

However, unlike the Danny briere-led hockey team, this team is focused on the field.

Enter quarterback Jonathan Bane, the team’s first signing. He has a a great deal of arena experience to his name, which includes one season with the Tampa bay Storm. He will be the Mammoths starting quarterback in 2018.

Also joining the Mammoths is former Jacksonville Sharks wide receiver Devin Wilson. He only recorded 18 receptions for 174 yards and three touchdowns, but he was also the team’s fourth receiver behind Thyron Lewis, Mo Williams and Darryl Thompson.

In Maine, he will be the top receiver. Pairing him up with Bane makes these two look like the best quarterback-wide receiver duo in the NAL. Fans should definitely pack the house to witness what these two can do together.

They kick off their season on Saturday when they travel to the DCU Center in Worcestor, MA to take on the Massachusetts Pirates.

Massachusetts Pirates 2018 Season Preview

There is a lot of hype going around the city of Worcester, MA.

The Massachusetts Pirates, one of three new teams in the National Arena League, open up their season a week from today. Most of this hype revolves around season tickets, which start at $90, but they’ll look to outprove that when they hit the field.

This team is the first arena team to play in the New England area in nearly a decade. The last being the New England surge of the CIFL, so there is a lot of hype there, too.

The season opens with a regional rival. They open April 7 in Worcester against the Maine mammoths. Then the challenge starts on April 14, when they face the defending NAL champion Jacksonville Sharks in Jacksonville. Then they go to the Triad on April 21, against the Carolina Cobras and to Allentown, PA on April 28 in  against the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks.

They then face the Columbus lions in a matinee May 6 with a 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff. The pirates face most of the other opponents again in Worcester and away after that.

Pirates quarterback Sean Brackett looks to rebound off a dissapointing season last year. London Crawford, a a star wide receiver for Massachusetts, just came off a great season in Nuevo León with the Monterrey Steel. Both are looking to be great for tom brady land.

Single game tickets for the Massachusetts Pirates home games at the DCU Center in Worcestor, MA begin at just $7, so the city should begin filling the arena come gameday this Saturday!

Jacksonville Sharks Road to Repeat Not Easy

The Jacksonville Sharks won the inaugural National Arena League title in 2017. They will be looking to repeat as champions in 2018. However, their road to repeat won’t be as easy as it was last season.

They finished the regular season with just one loss, their regular season finale to the Monterrey Steel. This time around, there is more competition that the Sharks will face.

The Lehigh Valley Steelhawks lost a few players, but they can still be a threat to Jacksonville. Also, the Sharks will travel to Allentown this season as opposed to when they only played once down in Jacksonville last season.

The Columbus Lions will also be returning talent from last season, such as wide receiver Tristan Purifoy and linebacker Kyle Griswould. They also have two quarterbacks that would do well if they started in Mason Espinosa and Kyle Cool. They could be a bigger threat to Jacksonville in 2018.

No one can count out the three expansion teams, either. The Carolina Cobras have brought several players from the now defunct Wichita Falls Nighthawks, one of the most talented teams in the Indoor Football League (IFL). Players that have joined Carolina from Wichita Falls include 2016 and 2017 IFL MVP quarterback Charles McCullum, wide receivers Jordan Jolly and Tyron Laughinghouse and even head coach Billy Back.

Should the Cobras execute the same way the Nighthawks did, Jacksonville will have trouble to start the season. They travel to Greensboro to take on the Cobras in their season opener on April 7.

The Massachusetts Pirates have also made signings that could surprise not just Jacksonville, but the National Arena League as a whole. One of their big signings is quarterback Sean Brackett. He took over the Washington Valor of the Arena Football League last season after Erik Meyer was injured and later retired.

The Maine Mammoths also have a quarterback-wide reciever duo that could prove to be a challenge to all teams in the NAL. Jonathon Bane and Devin Wilson could be much trouble for any opposing defenses. That Jacksonville’s high-powered defense that has both Marvin Ross, 2016 Arena Football League Defensive Player of the Year and Eddie Davis III, who recorded seven interceptions in three games in 2017, in their secondary.

Jacksonville will begin their road to repeat on April 7 when they travel to Greensboro, NC to take on the Carolina Cobras. National Arena Bowl II, the name of the league’s championship game, is set to be played on Saturday, Aug. 25.

Maine Mammoths Sign Wide Receiver Devin Wilson

The Maine Mammoths have announced the signing of wide receiver Devin Wilson. Wilson played with the Jacksonville Sharks in 2017, catching 25 passes for 237 yards and four touchdowns in nine games.

He started his career with the Richmond Raiders of the Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) in 2015. That season, he recorded 40 receptions for 483 yards and eight touchdowns. In 2016, as a member of the Cleveland Gladiators, he recorded 21 receptions for 262 yards and nine touchdowns.

The signing of Wilson makes the Mammoths look like a more serious threat in the National Arena League. He will be the team’s top receiver, catching passes from a talented veteran quarterback in Jonathon Bane. That duo could prove to be one of the best in the NAL during the 2018 season.

The National Arena League will be playing their second season in 2018. The season will begin on April 7 when Wilson’s former team, the Sharks, face the expansion Carolina Cobras in Greensboro, NC.

Like Carolina, Maine is also an expansion team in the NAL. They will play out of Portland, ME. Wilson, Bane and the Mammoths will be competing for a spot in National Arena Bowl II, which is set to be played on Saturday, Aug. 25.