Neil Stratton of InsideTheLeague.com hosted four guests to Zoom calls this week. The sessions were designed for aspiring scouts and football professionals. Around 30-40 people participated.
The four main speakers on these calls included Ethan Waugh, Vice President of Player Personnel, 49ers. Mike Sholiton, Director of College Scouting, Vikings. Kevin Kelly, Director of College Scouting, Chargers, and Brian Woods, President of Football Operations, of the USFL.
Woods drops some information on how the USFL will approach players for the upcoming return. Stratton paraphrased
“The USFL will grow to become a contender for players who enter the transfer portal and others who are at least three years removed from high school graduation. The USFL will not be the place for six- and seven-year veterans looking to cash a few last checks before cycling out of pro football.“
Stratton went on to say that this version of the USFL is bigger than what he expected to hear.
“I went into the session believing the USFL would just be The Spring League 2.0, a bigger and better version of Brian’s previous project. What I learned was that he has much bigger plans for the league, and while it won’t compete with the NFL, obviously, it will compete with college teams, especially G5 teams.“
G5 teams are in the American Athletic Conference (American), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW), and Sun Belt Conference (Sun Belt).
The USFL looks to be going about Spring league building differently. Rather than paying for name players like the original USFL did, or how the AAF brought in guys like Johnny Manziel.
The USFL 2.0 looks to bring in younger talent and build their own stars. The XFL only had one three-year college player in BattleHawks’ Kenny Robinson. The Carolina Panthers drafted Robinson in the 5th round in 2020 after the XFL closed its doors.
Will there be enough talent to go around for both the USFL and XFL? Just look at college football. Plenty of players are looking for an opportunity to play pro football.
The USFL will hit the field Friday, April 15th, 2022. Stay tuned to XFL News Hub for all your USFL news.
David Tress
December 10, 2021 at 1:47 pm
Johnny Manziel is still a good quarterback and would probably do well in the USFL.
Brian
December 12, 2021 at 11:55 am
JOhn Manziel has no heart for football and in my opinion football, in any of it’s forms or concepts doesn’t need him. He had his time to shine in the pro game and he fizzled. THis league should be built on college players with name recognition who went undrafted fr whatever reason. For all the older heads out there, if this league were around in the 90’s you’d have guys like Steve Sarkisian, Josh Wallwork, Kaipo McGuire, Brian Ah Yat, Marcus Harris James Dye would be ideally suited. The one thing I’d like to see in the USFL is awarding P.I. penalties from the line of scrimmage rather than where the foul took place, I think 15 yards automatic 1st down is fair as opposed to awarding a dubious penalty that occurred 40 yards downfield.
Gary
December 22, 2021 at 8:11 pm
I totally agree with you on all you said Brian.