What happened to Vic Beasley? Former Falcons All-Pro, NFL sack leader playing for XFL’s Vipers

The Vegas Vipers had the first pick in the linebacker portion of the XFL Draft, and the franchise wasted little time before making their pick.

Your choice? Former Falcons edge rusher Vic Beasley.

Beasley being in the XFL will come as a surprise to some. He was once considered a rising star and All-Pro talent when he led the NFL in sacks in the 2016 season. He never reached those heights again after that season, but surely an NFL team would want Beasley to roleplay, right?

Not quite. Beasley will actually be playing football for the first time since the 2020 season, when he played for both the Titans and Raiders.

So how did Beasley end up playing in the XFL? Here’s a look back at his NFL flameout and the blanket he could have playing for the Vipers.

MORE: Full results, players selected in 2023 XFL Draft

What happened to Vic Beasley?

Beasley’s career with the Falcons got off to a promising start, especially after he posted a league-high 15.5 sacks in his sophomore season in 2016 and was named an All-Pro.

However, he steadily rejuvenated after following this campaign. His struggles began when he didn’t record a sack during Atlanta’s run to the 2017 Super Bowl.

From there, Beasley’s main stats plummeted and the undersized edge rusher’s influence on the game waned. He was still able to amass 18 total sacks in his last three seasons with the Falcons, but at 6-3, 246 pounds, he wasn’t effective enough against the run to play consistently enough to be a high-end starter.

As a result, Beasley was forced to sign a one-year deal with the Titans ahead of the 2020 season. He was expected to potentially revive his career in Tennessee’s 3-4 alignment. Instead he fought.

Beasley has never logged a sack with the Titans and hasn’t even lasted an entire season in Tennessee. He was cut after appearing in just five games.

And after his release, then-general manager Jon Robinson revealed the team just couldn’t make Beasley work during the season.

“I just think that not every decision that we make works,” Robinson said. via Erik Bacharach from The Tennessean. “We spent a lot of time working with him and trying to get him to work. At the end of the day we thought it would be best for us to go in a different direction.”

You weren’t alone. Beasley was brought up by the Raiders after his departure from the Titans and made just a single tackle while appearing in five games.

Since then, Beasley has remained an unsigned NFL free agent. Now he will play for the first time in more than two years and the 30-year-old is hoping to regain at least some of his former All-Pro form.

Vic Beasley Statistics

As previously mentioned, Beasley’s second season at Atlanta was statistically his best. Still, he wasn’t a bad pass rusher during his other campaigns with the Falcons before flaring up in Tennessee and Las Vegas.

Below is a look at Beasley’s NFL stats by season as he seeks to establish himself as one of the XFL’s top edge rushers.

season	games	tackles	bags	TFL	Forced Fumbling	pass defense
2015	16	26	4	2	2	3
2016	16	39	15.5	11	6	2
2017	14	29	5	8th	1	2
2018	16	20	5	7	0	3
2019	16	42	8th	8th	2	2
2020	10	4	0	1	1	0

Beasley received an All-Pro nod and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2016. He didn’t receive any awards during his other five NFL seasons, and that was disappointing considering how he was touted as a potential player during his college years.

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Where did Vic Beasley go to college?

Beasley was with Clemson from 2011 to 2014 and he was one of the first big stars for Dabo Swinney’s defense.

However, it wasn’t always certain that Beasley would be a defensive player. Before his breakthrough season in 2012, the Tigers hadn’t figured out where to field the explosive athlete. They considered using him as a linebacker, tight end and even a running back before Swinney approached him to switch to defensive end.

“He’s such a good kid and he said, ‘I’ll do it,’ but his heart wasn’t in it, he wasn’t passionate about it,” Swinney told Bleacher Report in 2013. “He still hoped to be up front.”

This prompted Swinney to strike a deal with Beasley.

“Just commit this fall,” Swinney said of Beasley playing defensive end. “If you’re not having a good year and don’t feel like there’s a role for you, we’ll bring you back to running back.”

Beasley never had to do that. He came onto the scene as a sophomore when he tallyed eight sacks and demonstrated his fearsome pass-rushing ability and continued to improve from there. As a junior, he had 13 sacks but surprisingly passed the NFL draft despite receiving first-round projections.

The move was worth it. Beasley actually managed to improve his draft reserve after collecting nine sacks as a senior. He finished his Clemson career with 30 sacks and a whopping 48 TFL.

Vic Beasley NFL draft

Beasley was selected by the Falcons with the eighth overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. He was the second defenseman behind Dante Fowler, who went to the 3rd-ranked Jaguars.

Here’s a look at the top 10 from this year’s draft class:

Choose	player	team
1	James Winston	privateer
2	Markus Mariota	Titans
3	Dante Fowler	jaguars
4	Amari Cooper	robber
5	Brandon Scherf	Washington
6	Leonard Williams	nozzles
7	Kevin White	bears
8th	Vic Beasley	hawks
9	erect flowers	Giants
10	death Gurley	Aries

Beasley drew comparisons to another speed-based pass rusher, Bruce Irvin, ahead of the draft. Here’s what NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote about Beasley in his scouting report of the top 10 picks:

Projects as a 3-4 outside linebacker. Considered one of the best pure edge rushers in the draft, but needs more refinement in his approach. Has speed and blast to become an absolute threat for a creative defensive coordinator. Highly effective talent but needs to crank up the competitive nature to reach their potential.

In fact, Beasley’s speed at the NFL level has certainly been a weapon for him. However, he wasn’t quite able to add enough to his pass-rushing arsenal to justify his pick.

Still, Beasley put in the one All-Pro performance, so he wasn’t a total bust. He just didn’t develop properly. That’s why the Falcons left him and he left the NFL.

But now he has a chance to reignite his career if he becomes a top-flight rusher for the Vegas Vipers.