If you are old enough to remember the days of the United States Football League (USFL) in its original form, then you might be a bit perplexed if you woke up on Wednesday to news of the league’s latest draft.
Perhaps you might even think that you’ve overlooked a secondary football league operating in conjunction with the NFL for the last 30 or so years. But do not be alarmed. It’s just the latest attempt for an upstart league to satiate the desires of a passionate football fan base while the National Football League enters its offseason.
The USFL is back this spring with its inaugural draft for eight teams, and it’s giving a chance for some familiar faces to find work when the NFL isn’t providing that home just yet. For some players, it will be a hopeful showcase to make the leap. For others, it will be a chance to extend the playing career a bit longer. Either way, we’re just happy for more football in any form.
As for our purposes here, it was interesting to see the top two players taken overall were both former quarterbacks brought in for a brief moment by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Former Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks Shea Patterson and Jordan Ta’amu were the first two off the board in the new USFL draft.
The first player overall was former Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson, who was actually drafted into the USFL by the Michigan Panthers. He was with the Chiefs two offseasons ago after going unselected in the 2020 NFL Draft and hung around through OTAs and rookie minicamp but the Chiefs waived him before training camp got started.
Interestingly, Patterson was released after losing out to Jordan Ta’amu in a competition to be the developmental arm hanging around camp in 2020, and Ta’amu was the second quarterback drafted overall by a USFL team as he went to the Tampa Bay Bandits on Tuesday night. Ta’amu stuck around with the Chiefs practice squad into that same 2020 season but was released by October. He’s earned short stints with the Texans, Lions, and Panthers as well.
Now both Patterson and Ta’amu will earn significant looks this spring in competition as they lead their respective offenses in the resurrection of the USFL. It’s a solid chance to turn the heads of someone in the NFL looking for a hidden gem before training camp,