UFL College Draft: By the Numbers

Eighty players had their names called as part of Wednesday’s UFL College Draft. It was the first opportunity teams had to add players since the end of the 2024 season. This article will follow closely the XFL Rookie Draft: By the Numbers column I wrote at the conclusion of last year’s selection process. You can compare the two to see how this draft class differs from that one.

Full results of the UFL College Draft can be found here.

0: Specialists drafted

Only one was taken in the XFL Rookie Draft last year, but that one, P Paxton Brooks by D.C., ended up being one of the most impactful players out of the entire draft. This year, teams opted to punt on specialists altogether. Michigan has a hole at kicker with Jake Bates off to the NFL, yet they decided to wait on filling it. There are two specialist Showcases later this year that teams may be waiting on in order to get an up-close and personal look at who is available. Other teams may prefer to look for veterans to man these special teams positions.

0: Draft-day trades

There was no wheeling-and-dealing on draft day, no attempts to move up or down the board by dangling players or future draft picks to do so. This tracks with the fact that there were no in-season trades in the UFL in 2024. General managers seem content to do their thing and build their teams in a vacuum without potentially helping another team in the process or risking future draft or personnel capital.

2: Players drafted that did not participate in NFL rookie minicamps

The majority of players drafted either signed as rookie free agents after the NFL Draft, or attended an NFL rookie minicamp in May as a tryout player. Only two did neither, and both were drafted by Houston: S Tra Fluellen, taken in the second round; and LB Xavier Benson, a seventh-round pick. Fluellen tore his ACL in November and has been recovering, explaining his absence from NFL workouts. Benson, however, was a 14-game starter with Oklahoma State in 2023. It’s surprising to see that he hasn’t gotten a look from an NFL team thus far, but the NFL’s loss could be the Roughnecks’ gain.

7: Quarterbacks selected 

All but two teams aimed to increase competition at the most important position on the field. Houston and San Antonio were the only teams to sit out the quarterback derby, while D.C. used two of their 10 picks at that spot. The likelihood of some of these players ever making it to the UFL is slim, but it may be worth drafting their rights on the long shot that they become available. If you can find a potential starter at QB in this draft, which some of these drafted names could be, even if they only have an outside chance of playing in the UFL, you can imagine how tempting it would be to draft them.

8: Non-FBS players drafted

Those wishing the UFL would focus on small school sleepers were likely disappointed by the output in the 2024 UFL College Draft. All but eight picks were from Division I FBS schools. A few others at the FCS level were from powerhouses like South Dakota State. Only one Division II player was taken. With a scouting staff of just one, the team’s general manager, they may not have had the time to uncover diamonds in the rough for this draft. The league’s Showcases, which will draw a lot of small-school players, could potentially do that.

9: Players taken by teams in the state they played college

There was some discussion from fans that in order to generate interest in some of these flailing UFL markets, teams should’ve be able to “protect” players from certain local colleges so that the community had recognizable players on those teams. While that did not happen, some teams did dip into nearby schools, purposefully or not. The Showboats selected Memphis RB Blake Watson and Tennessee TE McCallan Castles; D.C’s first pick was on a University of Maryland offensive tackle; San Antonio’s final selection was on a University of Texas-San Antonio player; and so on. Perhaps at the least, these picks will give the teams some local press during the summer in the midst of an otherwise down time for league coverage.

27: Players selected that attended the NFL Combine

To show the difference in quality of players the UFL teams were choosing from this year compared to last year’s XFL Rookie Draft, only two of the 80 selected in 2023 attended that year’s Combine. By opening the draft up to undrafted free agents still under NFL contract, as this year’s draft did, the pool of quality players increased. Most players taken in the NFL Draft participated in the Combine, and those players were off-limits to UFL teams in this draft. But UFL general managers were able to watch players take part in on-field drills and get verified measurements through the Combine that allowed them to make apples-to-apples comparisons with other players throughout college football. For some, those Combine appearances may have helped GMs make the decision to draft them here.

56: All-star game attendees drafted by UFL teams

One way players may choose to stand out among their peers heading into the NFL Draft is to participate in post-season all-star games. These are a hotbed of scouting activity, with almost every NFL team sending a contingent for the week of practice leading up to the game. In the past, XFL and USFL personnel have attended as well. Even if UFL general managers, coaches, or league player personnel staff was not there in person, each would have practice and game tape made available to them. The most prestigious of the all-star games, the Senior Bowl, had 10 of its attendees drafted on Wednesday. The East-West Shrine Bowl led the way with 29, followed by the Hula Bowl with 17 and the Tropical Bowl with nine (some players competed in multiple all-star games). The Shrine Game’s director of football operations, Eric Galko, was the director of player personnel with the XFL in 2020, so there is a connection there.

65: Players drafted that are currently under contract to NFL teams

As mentioned above, the UFL College Draft differed from the XFL Rookie Draft in that players eligible for the NFL Draft, who went un-selected there, could be taken by UFL teams, even if they signed into the NFL as undrafted free agents. Teams would then hold their rights should they get released and look to enter the UFL. There is a positive and negative to this: The positive is that the UFL is drafting higher-quality players with a better likelihood of success in the league should they choose to take that route (only eight of 80 players taken in the XFL Rookie Draft last year saw UFL regular season action in 2024). The downside is that a large percentage of these players drafted may never even set foot on a UFL field should their NFL careers work out.

80: Total players drafted

This appears to be the sweet spot for a draft of this nature: Both the USFL College Draft and XFL Rookie Draft of 2023 had 10 rounds each. Expect this to be the norm going forward. Even with 10 rounds, teams will be lucky to get a few players out of their draft class to actually attend training camp next year, which may not be much of a problem depending upon how many players teams will be allowed to take to camp. Because of the various dispersal drafts and it being the first year of a new league, UFL teams were allowed to carry up to 70 in camp this past year. That may not be the norm going forward.

Approximately 12,000: Players eligible for the UFL College Draft

This number comes from a UFL press release. This takes into account all college football players who have exhausted their eligibility. It’s a daunting task to imagine the one-man personnel departments that the UFL teams have trying to narrow down this number to players into some kind of ranking that would also fit their team’s schemes and culture. This is where coaches and the league personnel department could help provide some guidance. Ideally, as the UFL grows, hopefully they make room for team personnel departments to grow with it so that the task of scouting so many players isn’t laid at the feet of just one person.