2023 USFL Draft: Everything you need to know

Eric Williams

NFC West Reporter

The USFL will have its first collegiate draft on Tuesday, starting at 1 p.m. ET. The draft pool includes over 3,000 eligible players, and 80 will be selected in the 10-round draft. The Michigan Panthers earned the first overall selection by defeating the Pittsburgh Maulers in the last game of the season in 2022.

Daryl Johnston, executive vice president of football operations and Jim Popp, director of player administration of the USFL were gracious enough to answer a few questions heading into Tuesday’s draft.

How does this year’s draft different from last season‘s?

The USFL had 280 players selected in last season’s draft, with the main purpose to build rosters for the upcoming season from a pool of seasoned, professional players. This year, the focus is on rounding out depth and adding talent to teams that already have their foundations in place by selecting from a pool of college-eligible players.

All players for the 2023 USFL college draft must have been out of high school for at least three years, waived their remaining college eligibility or have exhausted their college eligibility.

Last year, players eligible for the draft were already under contract. This season, teams that select a player will retain the rights of that player until he decides to report to the team to negotiate a contract. If the drafting team doesn’t make an offer, then the drafting team must relinquish the rights to the player via notification to the USFL League Office.

Johnston: Last year the draft served a different purpose. We were trying to fill the entire roster for eight teams through that, so that was a much different approach in year one of building the league. This one, it’s just kind of getting into the traditional, collegiate draft class that’s coming up prior to your season.

How do you deal with players concerned about getting drafted into NFL?

Johnston: That’s the hard part. We know you’re a couple months away from going through something you dreamed about as a young boy. We fully understand that. Our focus is on the back end of the (NFL) draft, potential seventh round and preferred free agency-type guys. Our GMs and scouts were at the college All-Star games. They understand the athlete that we’re looking for, so that makes it a challenging part for us. But we’re not doing it like last year. Everybody in the draft pool was under contract.

This year, you’re selecting the player, and you have the rights to that player moving forward.

Popp: I’ll add to that. We’ve done our homework, so the majority of players we draft probably won’t be drafted by the NFL. There could be some bubble guys that cross over, there’s no question. But this is a chance to give an individual young man a dream come true, that might not ever get drafted. This might be the only time they get drafted, so we provide that opportunity to them as well.

Players will know who owns their rights that do get drafted. And several guys last year, as much as we were trying to have players come to us, they still wanted to go through with their pro day. And at least about 50% of the pro days will be over with by the time we start training camp (in March). And out of that 50%, guys will know how they do and what feedback they get from NFL teams. A lot of them have waited for that moment once they got into college, to do that pro day. So, they will already know what other options they have while they are going through their pro day. And that will probably help them make their decision.

How do USFL teams approach the draft?

Johnston: I think the big thing is that we’ve been able to be a little more specific in how each team addresses where their roster needs are. Last year, you are going off a lot of unknowns. There are some things we put in place this year that made us much better in our evaluation process, and we’ll be even better in Year 3. But that’s going to be the most important thing. They know where they need to add depth from last year.

Popp: I do think each team will have a very unique path that they take. Some guys, just talking to them, are looking to get guys they can bring in immediately. And then there are other teams where it’s really about the future because they got a lot of their team back. And they would rather get the rights of players and maybe have them a year from now, even if it’s for half a season. This is what makes this draft fun, because we really don’t know which direction each team is going in.

What’s the roster makeup? And can you talk about the new third QB rule?

Popp: So, 58 players go to training camp. We will have a mandatory cut down to 54 and then a last cut down to 50. The final rosters will be 40 active players and 10 inactive players on game days.

Johnston said injury concerns on game days could still be an issue because game-day active roster remains the same. However, Johnston said the USFL will provide for teams to have a third quarterback available should the first two active quarterbacks suffer injuries on game days, similar to what the San Francisco 49ers endured in the NFC championship game, where they were down to running back Christian McCaffrey as the only healthy option at quarterback.

Johnston: We saw how that changed the game in the NFC Championship game, so Mike Pereira is going to create that old NFL third quarterback rule. There was one version that Mike really liked, so we’ll have a third quarterback dressed and inactive. And if we lose our first two quarterbacks, he’ll be able to enter the game.”

Last year 69 players were invited to NFL training camps and players like KaVontae Turpin had productive seasons. Is that a selling point for players this year?

Johnston: I think it’s huge. We wore the KaVontae Turpin story out (laughs). It’s a feel-good story. I’ve been in the other two leagues. We’ve had some success, but we never had anything like that. I never had a Pro Bowler. I never had an All-Pro voted on by your peers. So, that was tremendous. But there’s some other good stories, too. DeMarquis Gates is a great story in Chicago. He’s tried this twice and hasn’t been able to stick. It’s just interesting, you get a little older, a little wiser and you fit into a system well.

We had over 180 players get invited to NFL tryouts. And we have right around 13 players that are still on 53-man rosters now. And that’s a big deal, too. That financially changes a young man’s trajectory, getting on that 53.

Here’s the draft order for Tuesday’s draft:

*Note: New Jersey draft positions penalized for violating offseason roster management rules.

ROUND 1 (Overall)

1. (1) Michigan Panthers
2. (2) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (3) Houston Gamblers
4. (4) Memphis Showboats
5. (5) New Orleans Breakers
6. (6) Philadelphia Stars
7. (7) Birmingham Stallions

ROUND 2 (Overall)

1. (8) Michigan Panthers
2. (9) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (10) Houston Gamblers
4. (11) Memphis Showboats
5. (12) New Orleans Breakers
6. (13) Philadelphia Stars
7. (14) Birmingham Stallions
*8. (15) New Jersey Generals

ROUND 3 (Overall)

1. (16) Michigan Panthers
2. (17) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (18) Houston Gamblers
4. (19) Memphis Showboats
5. (20) New Orleans Breakers
6. (21) Philadelphia Stars
7. (22) Birmingham Stallions
*8. (23) New Jersey Generals

ROUND 4 (Overall)

1. (24) Michigan Panthers
2. (25) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (26) Houston Gamblers
4. (27) Memphis Showboats
5. (28) New Orleans Breakers
6. (29) Philadelphia Stars
7. (30) Birmingham Stallions
*8. (31) New Jersey Generals

ROUND 5 (Overall)

1. (32) Michigan Panthers
2. (33) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (34) Houston Gamblers
4. (35) Memphis Showboats
5. (36) New Orleans Breakers
6. (37) Philadelphia Stars
7. (38) Birmingham Stallions
*8. (39) New Jersey Generals

ROUND 6 (Overall)

1. (40) Michigan Panthers
2. (41) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (42) Houston Gamblers
4. (43) Memphis Showboats
5. (44) New Orleans Breakers
6. (45) New Jersey Generals
7. (46) Philadelphia Stars
8. (47) Birmingham Stallions

ROUND 7 (Overall)

1. (48) Michigan Panthers
2. (49) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (50) Houston Gamblers
4. (51) Memphis Showboats
5. (52) New Orleans Breakers
6. (53) New Jersey Generals
7. (54) Philadelphia Stars
8. (55) Birmingham Stallions

ROUND 8 (Overall)

1. (56) Michigan Panthers
2. (57) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (58) Houston Gamblers
4. (59) Memphis Showboats
5. (60) New Orleans Breakers
6. (61) New Jersey Generals
7. (62) Philadelphia Stars
8. (63) Birmingham Stallions

ROUND 9 (Overall)

1. (64) Michigan Panthers
2. (65) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (66) Houston Gamblers
4. (67) Memphis Showboats
5. (68) New Orleans Breakers
6. (69) New Jersey Generals
7. (70) Philadelphia Stars
8. (71) Birmingham Stallions

ROUND 10 (Overall)

1. (72) Michigan Panthers
2. (73) Pittsburgh Maulers
3. (74) Houston Gamblers
4. (75) Memphis Showboats
5. (76) New Orleans Breakers
6. (77) New Jersey General
7. (78) Philadelphia Stars
8. (79) Birmingham Stallions
*9. (80) New Jersey Generals

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