The USFL is back, and New England Patriots fans may recognize a few familiar faces when the league reboots this spring.
The revamped United States Football League held the first 12 rounds of its 35-round inaugural draft Tuesday night, as the league's eight teams began filling out their rosters.
Unlike the traditional NFL Draft, this draft followed a snake format and went position-by-position for each round, so only quarterbacks were selected in Round 1, only edge rushers and defensive ends in Rounds 2 through 4, and so on.A pair of talented college quarterbacks went No. 1 and No. 2 overall: Michigan's Shea Patterson to the Michigan Panthers and Mississippi's Jordan Ta’amu to the Tampa Bay Bandits.
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Day 1 also saw three former Patriots players go off the board. Here's a quick rundown:
De’Vante Bausby, CB (Round 8 - New Jersey Generals)
Bausby joined the Patriots' practice squad in October 2021. While he didn't appear in a regular-season game, the Pittsburg State alum was elevated to the active roster for New England's AFC Wild Card matchup with the Buffalo Bills and played three defensive snaps in the 47-17 loss.
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Bausby most recently saw regular-season action with the Denver Broncos (10 games) and Arizona Cardinals (one game) in 2020.
Will Likely, CB (Round 9 - Houston Gamblers)
Likely got his NFL start with the Patriots, signing with the team as an undrafted free agent out of Maryland in 2017. New England released him following the preseason in September 2017, and he spent the next four seasons in the Canadian Football League and the XFL.
Likely was also J.C. Jackson's college teammate at Maryland in 2016.
J'Mar Davis-Smith, QB (Round 12 - Birmingham Stallions)
Davis-Smith enjoyed a stellar college career at Louisiana Tech, earning Conference USA Football Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2019. He signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in May 2020, joining Brian Lewerke as the two undrafted QBs New England added following Tom Brady's departure.
The Patriots waived Davis-Smith prior to training camp in July 2020.
The 2022 USFL season is set to begin on April 16.
UPDATE (Wednesday, Feb. 23, 4 p.m. ET): Day 2 of the USFL Draft saw several more ex-Patriots land jobs.
Here's the list of former New England players taken Wednesday in the USFL, which includes a few players who saw game action in Foxboro:
- Isaiah Zuber, WR (Round 13 - Houston Gamblers)
- Jeffrey Thomas, WR (Round 13 - Pittsburgh Maulers)
- Quincy Adeboyejo, WR (Round 13 - Michigan Panthers)
- Obi Melifonwu, S (Round 13 - Tampa Bay Bandits)
- Scooby Wright, LB (Round 21 - Birmingham Stallions)
- Christian Sam, LB (Round 21 - Tampa Bay Bandits)
- Mike Barnett, DT (Round 24 - Philadelphia Stars)
- John Atkins, DT (Round 26 - Tampa Bay Bandits)
- Kyahva Tezino, LB (Round 31 - Pittsburgh Maulers)