The USFL is gearing up to return for a second season, and the league reached a big milestone on Tuesday. The league held its second USFL Draft, but this one will be different than other spring league drafts.
Usually, spring league drafts are focused on building an entire roster. However, because the USFL is returning for a second season, it didn't need to host a 50-plus-round selection festival.
Instead, the league held just a 10-round draft that focused on adding young talent to each team.
Indeed, the USFL hosted a college draft during which 80 total players were selected into the league. The USFL's Executive Vice President of Football Operations Daryl Johnston believed this event was an important step forward for the league.
"The USFL will continue to search for and evaluate the best players to join our league," Johnston said in a pre-draft press release. "We are excited to see who the next KaVontae Turpin will be to turn an opportunity with the USFL into a springboard for success in the NFL.
Conducting our inaugural College Draft shows that the USFL is committed to providing these talented players an alternative route to pursue their professional football dreams.
The USFL Draft certainly drummed up some excitement among fans of the league. But who was selected? The Sporting News tracked the results from the 2023 USFL Draft.
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How does the USFL draft work?
The USFL Draft will operate similarly to the NFL Draft. The draft will be conducted in a fixed order that largely follows the inverse order of the standings from 2022. The only exception is that the Panthers, not Maulers, will draft first after beating Pittsburgh head-to-head in a Week 10 game that decided the No. 1 overall selection.
Too, USFL teams are permitted to take players at any position with their selections. There are no restrictions akin to the ones from the 2022 USFL Draft, which required teams to select from certain position groups at specific times.
That said, there are some differences between the USFL and NFL Drafts. The most glaring is that there will be no trades during the USFL Draft. The league is forbidding teams from trading picks or players already under contract for the rights of other players. It's unclear if that is just during the draft or if it applies for a period after it.
Elsewhere, teams will have five minutes to make a selection in the first three rounds. In the final seven rounds, the clubs will have three minutes to choose. There will be a five-minute break between each of the rounds as well.
By the end of the draft, each team will have selected 10 new players to join its organization.
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USFL Draft order
Almost every round of the 2023 USFL Draft will follow the first-round draft order, which is listed below.
| Pick | Team |
| 1 | Michigan Panthers |
| 2 | Pittsburgh Maulers |
| 3 | Houston Gamblers |
| 4 | Memphis Showboats |
| 5 | New Orleans Breakers |
| 6 | Philadelphia Stars |
| 7 | Birmingham Stallions |
| 8 | New Jersey Generals* |
The only rounds that will not follow that order in full are the first and the last (10th).
The Generals will not have a pick in the first round of the 2023 USFL Draft, as they have been penalized for violating the USFL's offseason roster management rules. That means there will be only seven selections in the first round of the draft and the Generals won't have a selection until the final pick of Round 2.
From there, New Jersey will pick last through Round 5. The Generals will begin picking sixth again in Round 6. They also have been granted a compensatory pick at the end of Round 10 that will make up for the team being without a first-round selection. That will ensure each of the USFL's eight teams drafts exactly 10 players.
MORE: How Birmingham Stallions beat Philadelphia Stars in USFL championship game
USFL Draft Tracker: Live results, complete picks list
Here is a team-by-team breakdown of the USFL draft. Teams are listed in the order that they drafted over the first five rounds.
Michigan Panthers
- Round 1: Jarrett Horst, OT, Michigan State
- Round 2: Tanner Morgan, QB, Minnesota
- Round 3: Santrell Latham, LB, Southern Miss
- Round 4: DJ Scaife Jr., OL, Miami
- Round 5: Dashaun White, LB, Oklahoma
- Round 6: Levi Bell, DT, Texas State
- Round 7: Gunnar Oakes, TE, Eastern Michigan
- Round 8: Andrew Farmer II, DE, Lane College
- Round 9: Chim Okorafor, OT, Benedictine
- Round 10: Sidy Sow, OT, Eastern Michigan
Pittsburgh Maulers
- Round 1: Lindsey Scott Jr., QB, Incarnate Word
- Round 2: Malik Hamm, DE, Lafayette
- Round 3: Tre'Quan Dorsey, OT, St. Francis University
- Round 4: Ferlando Jordan, DB, Southeastern Louisiana
- Round 5: Isaiah Land, DE, Florida A&M
- Round 6: Nash Jensen, OL, North Dakota State
- Round 7: Taylor Grimes, WR, Incarnate Word
- Round 8: CJ Turner, WR, Southeastern Louisiana
- Round 9: Jacob Slade, DL, Michigan State
- Round 10: Ethan Evans, P, Wingate
Houston Gamblers
- Round 1: Chase Brice, QB, Appalachian State
- Round 2: Justin Ford, DB, Montana
- Round 3: Joseph Fisher, G, Shepherd
- Round 4: Scott Matlock, DT, Boise State
- Round 5: Jeffery Johnson, DT, Oklahoma
- Round 6: Keenan Isaac, DB, Alabama State
- Round 7: Alex Jensen, OT, South Dakota
- Round 8: Brady Russell, TE, Colorado
- Round 9: Jason Taylor II, S, Oklahoma State
- Round 10: Colby Reeder, LB, Iowa State
Memphis Showboats
- Round 1: Mason Brooks, OT, Ole Miss
- Round 2: Isaiah Bolden, CB, Jackson State
- Round 3: Brevin Allen, DE, Campbell
- Round 4: Benny Sapp III, DB, Northern Iowa
- Round 5: Michael Ezeike, TE, UCLA
- Round 6: Jerome Carvin, OL, Tennessee
- Round 7: Nehemiah Shelton, CB, San Jose State
- Round 8: Trea Shropshire, WR, UAB
- Round 9: Silas Dzansi, OL, Virginia Tech
- Round 10: Antonio Fletcher, S, Southern Illinois
New Orleans Breakers
- Round 1: Tyler Scott, WR, Cincinnati
- Round 2: Noah Taylor, LB, Virginia
- Round 3: DJ Ivey, CB, Miami
- Round 4: Keaton Mitchell, RB, East Carolina
- Round 5: Isaiah Moore, LB, NC State
- Round 6: Dante Stills, DT, West Virginia
- Round 7: Darius Hagans, RB, Virginia State
- Round 8: Jake Bobo, WR, UCLA
- Round 9: Alex Palczewski, OL, Illinois
- Round 10: Tyler Baker-Williams, CB, NC State
Philadelphia Stars
- Round 1: Alfred Edwards, OT, Utah State
- Round 2: Anderson Hardy, OT, Appalachian State
- Round 3: Isaac Moore, OT, Temple
- Round 4: Truman Jones, DE, Harvard
- Round 5: Earl Bostick Jr., OT, Kansas
- Round 6: Jose Ramirez, DE, Eastern Michigan
- Round 7: Demontrey Jacobs, OT, South Florida
- Round 8: Trey Botts, DL, Colorado State-Pueblo
- Round 9: Destin Mack, CB, Citadel
- Round 10: Dre Terry, LB, Alabama A&M
Birmingham Stallions
- Round 1: Kadeem Telfort, OT, UAB
- Round 2: Quinton Barrow, OT, Grand Valley State
- Round 3: Malik Cunningham, QB, Louisville
- Round 4: Derius Davis, WR, TCU
- Round 5: Zeke Vandenburgh, DE, Illinois State
- Round 6: Colby Sorsdal, OT, William & Mary
- Round 7: Grant DuBose, WR, Charlotte
- Round 8: Mark Evans II, OL, Arkansas Pine-Bluff
- Round 9: BJ Thompson, DE, Stephen F. Austin
- Round 10: Starling Thomas, DB, UAB
New Jersey Generals
- Round 2: Adrian Martinez, QB, Kansas State
- Round 3: J.J. Holloman, WR, Tennessee State
- Round 4: Victor Jones, DL, Akron
- Round 5: De'Jahn Warren, CB, Jackson State
- Round 6: Derrick Tucker, S, Texas Southern
- Round 7: Jermaine McDaniel Jr., North Carolina A&T
- Round 8: Adam Korsak, P, Rutgers
- Round 9: Jalen Holson, RB, Virginia Tech
- Round 10: Nick Zecchino, LS, Purdue
- Round 10: Rey Estes, DB, Grambling State
