Kicking off the new year we reported that the USFL would be conducting their draft (or player selections) in the last week of February. It was expected that we’d see a rapid fire of news coming from the USFL early in the year, but nobody thought we’d be learning so much so soon.
The news regarding the player selections stemmed from a memo that was sent to NFLPA contract advisors yesterday informing them how to become eligible to play for the league. Beyond timelines, it also gave us some more insight on the leagues plans.
- Training camp begins March 21st
- Regular season concludes June 19th
- Each team will have 38-man active roster and 7-man practice squad
- Players will be employees of the USFL and receive base compensation as well as be eligible for win bonuses
- To be eligible to sign with the USFL, an individual must have graduated from high school in 2020 or an earlier year
The roster size caught a few by surprise, but this matches the same strategy that The Spring League used in 2020 and 2021. We can also assume that the reports of the Championship taking place July 3rd are correct, as this would take place two weeks after the regular season concludes.
With a date set for each team to select players, it’s expected that we learn who the coaches will be sooner rather than later. Although we don’t exactly know when we’ll hear the names, we seem to have a better look at how the USFL is planning to handle the coaching duties. Yesterday Nick Uliana of Philly Stars Blog posted that sources had told him that head coaches would also be serving as the teams general manager.
We reached out to a source close to the league and we’re able to confirm a few items.
First, head coaches will have final say over player personnel matters in the USFL. They will essentially assume the role of general manager as well, but without the label. Additionally, each team with have a Director of Football operations to assist in roster management and share in player personnel responsibilities.
Uliana also had another interesting tidbit in his article, that we were unable to confirm.
Now as for who will be coaching the teams, sources also stated that due to the similarity of the two the leagues and the player and coach relationships formed, as much as half of the USFL head coaches could be from XFL.
As we mentioned earlier, we expect coaching announcements to happen in the near future, so we’ll know soon enough.
Which coaches would you like to see in the USFL? Let us know down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
