What kind of league will the UFL be?

Over the past week the UFL has announced 38 players that will play for their teams in both New York and Las Vegas. Based on these players signings we can start to assess exactly what kind of league we are going to see when the UFL takes the field in October.

Now I want to be clear here, that I am not disrespecting or talking down about this new league. The biggest mistake this league could make would be to try and be the NFL, or NFL light. This league should focus on the gap in football between the College level and that of the NFL level.

It would seem, based on the players that have signed, that this league understand that. In the list of the 38 players signed we see a few that never quite made it in the NFL. Guys like LB Teddy Lehman, WR David Kirkus, QB Tim Rattay, OT Brandon Joyce, QB Brian Johnson who join JP Losman as the first batch of known UFL players.

This league seems to be setting itself up as the home of guys who went undrafted to the NFL, guys from smaller schools who still have something to prove to NFL scouts combined with guys who didn’t make it in the NFL for whatever reason, and guys who never quite lived up to their potential in the NFL for whatever reasons.

Based on the names on this list, it seems that the UFL will be more like the old USFL than like its XFL cousin. In fact it may be everything that the old NFL Europe league was not, and there seems to be a market for that kind of league.