Following the lead of other USFL franchises of hiring successful coaches before signing players, such as George Allen in Chicago, Hugh Campbell in Los Angeles, and Red Miller in Denver, the Federals named long time CFL coach Ray Jauch as their first head coach. Jauch had over a decade of success in the CFL, first with Edmonton and later with Winnipeg, winning the Grey Cup in 1975 and obtaining an overall record of 121 wins, 99 loses, and 4 ties. With the first USFL draft coming up in early January of 1983, the Federals began to make trades with other members of the USFL. Although the Federals pulled off many trades with other teams, they seemed to be on the losing end of most of them. Some trades that hurt the Federals in the long run was trading a 5th round pick to the Michigan Panthers for the rights to LB John Corker. Corker would go on to have 28 quarterback sacks during the 1983 season. They also received a 5th round pick from the Chicago Blitz for the rights to former New York Jet running back Kevin Long. Long would run for over one thousand yards in 1983 and 1984.
As one of the original 12 USFL franchises, the Federals had to assemble a team through
the draft, free agents, and trades. Some of the early players signed by the Federlas were
former Redskins. These players included RB Buddy Hardeman, DE Coy Bacon, and P Mike Bragg. Some free
agents were WR's Joey Walters and Mike Holmes,
RB Billy Taylor, QB Kim McQuilken, and DE Ron Estay.
Through the first USFL draft the Federals got SMU RB Craig James,
QB Mike Hohensee, and DB Jeff Brown. Along with these players there
were some players with other pro experience, mostly in the CFL, like DB Mike Guess and DB Gregg Bulter.
They were going to play at RFK stadium ,which held about 55,000 people. However, unlike other cities in the USFL, the Federals never were received well in the Nations Capital and struggled to draw fans. After drawing 38,000 fans to their first game in 1983, the Federals were lucky to draw 10,000 people to a game. After an even worse second season in 1984, the team was sold to outside interests and were going to move to Miami. However, with the decision to move to the fall for the 1986 season, the Federals moved to Orlando instead and became the Renegades. Washingotn Federal owner Berl Bernard sited back in 1984, that the Washington area was used to winners and the only way the Federals could survive in such a city was to develop a winner. With the success of the Redskins, Capitals, Bullets, University of Maryland, and Georgetown, Bernard said it was difficult to draw fans to a team that was not winning on the field.