PUEBLO, Colo. – At the Kansas City Outlaws training camp at the end of June, the bull riders went on runs, flipped tires, swung battle ropes, and carried heavy wooden beams through a pond, all wearing T-shirts with “Be 90” emblazoned on the back in Outlaw orange.
Be 90: a simple goal for a team that, admittedly, has a steep climb ahead of it in the 2023 PBR Teams season.
In 2022, the Outlaws finished a disappointing seventh out of eight teams in the regular season, going 12-16.
They finished in sixth place at the season-opener in Cheyenne, going 1-1, before being blanked at their home event, Outlaw Days in Kansas City, and finishing eighth. They rebounded with another 1-1 performance to place fourth in Anaheim and then placed a season-high second in Nashville, going 2-1.
After a sixth-place finish in Austin, the Outlaws again went 2-1 to finish third in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Oklahoma City, however, saw another goose egg and another eighth-place finish.
In Ridgedale, Missouri, the Outlaws went 2-1 to finish a respectable fourth before finally going 3-0 in Fort Worth, Texas, at the penultimate event of the regular season, finishing second.
Wrapping up the regular season in Glendale, Arizona, however, the Outlaws were back in eighth place with an 0-3 record. They also finished eighth at the PBR Teams Championship in Las Vegas, going 0-2 and being eliminated in the first Last Chance Game of the weekend.
A substantial blow came to the Outlaws’ chances when team brass traded away first-round draft pick Dalton Kasel to the Austin Gamblers in exchange for 2017 PBR Velocity Tour Champion Alex Marcilio, two draft picks –a first-round pick in 2024 and a second-round pick in 2025 – and cash considerations.
“The Outlaws had the chance to make a deal with Austin that allowed us to better position ourselves for the future and carry on as we chase Kansas City’s next national championship,” Outlaws head coach J.W. Hart said at the time. “We’re excited for what lies ahead both in 2022 and beyond.”
Ironically, the trade happened just before the Outlaws’ best performance of the season in Fort Worth.
While it hurt to see Kasel in Gamblers green, the 2024 draft pick could be key in reversing Kansas City’s fortunes, as it’s when two-time National High School Finals Bull Riding champion John Crimber will be eligible for the PBR Team Series draft. Crimber is widely expected to be a star, and the Outlaws are well-positioned to have the pick of the litter should he declare for the draft.
But that’s all hypothetical for next year. What pieces do the Outlaws have to make a run with in 2023?
“I’ll say, early on, it was, at times, frustrating for all of us because we were learning together,” Outlaws general manager Jim Smith shared with PBR Now! host Fanchon Stinger. “We were truly building the airplane as we were flying it, but it was so exciting to see all of the success from the first year and now the energy going into the second year of PBR Teams.”
Returning Outlaw Riders: Kyler Oliver, Bob Mitchell, Marcus Mast, Koltin Hevalow
New Outlaw Riders: Wingson Henrique da Silva, Cassio Dias, Leonardo Castro Ferreira, Julio Cesar Marques, Brady Portenier
The returning riders are strong ones.
“We have something called the Outlaw attitude, and those four guys that we have fit it,” Smith said.
Marcus Mast was easily the team’s star in 2022, going 16-for-32 (50%) and finishing third in the league’s MVP race. He cooled off during the 2023 Unleash The Beast season, going 10-for-46 (21%) to finish the season ranked No. 37, but if he can regain his prior form for the Outlaws, he’ll be a key piece.
2022 Rookie of the Year Bob Mitchell will be one to watch as he missed most of the 2023 UTB season due to injury. He went 10-for-26 (38%) for the Outlaws last season, and those are 10 rides the team won’t want to lose out on. Koltin Hevalow, meanwhile, finished the UTB season ranked No. 36 and went 5-for-19 (26%) for the Outlaws last season.
Kyler Oliver might be the most critical piece of the puzzle.
The 23-year-old is signed to a multi-year deal with the Outlaws and will potentially be the face of the team heading into the future. Oliver slipped to the second round of the 2022 PBR Team Series Draft because of a broken neck, and Kansas City was able to snag a rider with first-round talent.
However, last season, he went just 2-for-12 (16%) for the Outlaws in limited action. He competed in just 14 UTB events in 2023 but still finished the season ranked No. 20 with five Top-5 finishes. If Oliver can produce the way he’s capable of, it could change the team’s fortunes.
Of the new additions, the biggest is Wingson Henrique da Silva, who the Outlaws received from the Carolina Cowboys in exchange for the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft. Silva went just 3-for-20 (15%) for the Cowboys last season but broke out in his rookie Unleash The Beast season, going a much-improved 20-for-53 (37%) and finishing No. 4 in the standings. The Cowboys ultimately selected Josh Frost with that pick – will he be able to provide the same value as Silva, or was this a prescient trade by the Outlaws?
Cassio Dias is also an interesting variable. The 2022 PBR Brazil Champion, he will be making his Teams debut after being selected with the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft. Dias has just two premier series events under his belt but finished eighth at the 2023 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals and is a staggering 41-for-59 (69%) in PBR Brazil competition, including wins at the Festa do Peão de Americana and Iron Cowboy Americana in 2022. The Outlaws’ other 2023 draft pick, Leonardo Castro Ferreira, is yet to make his U.S. debut but is an incredible 18-for-21 (85%) in PBR Brazil – will that translate for the Outlaws?
The team is again helmed by Iron Man J.W. Hart, who will be joined by new assistant coach Guilherme Marchi, 2008 World Champion and owner of the record for most qualified rides in PBR history.
It’s up to them to pass on that Outlaw attitude.
“With Lennie and Jim and the ownership that we have, that’s just the mentality that we have,” Hart told Stinger on PBR Now! “That we don’t quit. That we have the gravel in our guts from the start to the finish, and we see the job done. And we give it our best effort every single time. If you do that and you put that 100% effort into every time you do anything, you’ll receive the best results possible.”
“That’s part of my focus for the team, not to build bull riders, but to build men.”
The Outlaws will host their homestand, Outlaw Days, on Aug. 3-5 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
The 2023 PBR Teams season kicks off on July 24-25 at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the Outlaws will face off against the Austin Gamblers and the Oklahoma Freedom.
Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media