The UFL will soon launch their inaugural season when the USFL champion Birmingham Stallions take on the XFL champion Arlington Renegades at 1pm ET, Saturday, March 30th. The new league has taken four teams from the USFL and four from the XFL and merged them for the 2024 season. And like in any football league, quarterbacks are the driving force behind making the games watchable.
Going into Week 1 of the season, there are plenty of question marks at the quarterbacks position and we could see the position shared on some teams. But, we have a reasonable idea as to who will start. Let’s take a look at the starting quarterbacks for the new league:
Arlington Renegades
Luis Perez, Holton Ahlers, Lindsey Scott Jr.
Perez was traded toward the end of the 2023 season from the Las Vegas Vipers after being benched and went on to lead the Renegades to the XFL title despite Arlington finishing the regular season at 4-6. He came on strong in the playoffs, throwing six touchdowns to zero interceptions in the final two matchups. Like any Spring footballer, Perez has shown inconsistencies, but he’s also been able to elevate his teams and has a lot of starts under his belt. He’s in the top tier of starters.
Birmingham Stallions
Matt Corral, Adrian Martinez, J’Mar Smith
The Stallions are coming off back-to-back USFL championships and have added former third-round NFL draft pick Matt Corral to the team. J’Mar Smith was their starter last season before suffering an injury which propelled Alex McGough to starter. Smith is back and McGough is gone, while they also added Adrian Martinez to the QB room.
Corral has been named the starter, while Martiniez is his backup for Week 1. Corral’s grip on that starting job is hard to know at this point, but he has the pedigree to run away with the job.
St Louis Battlehawks
AJ McCarron, Manny Wilkins, Brandon Silvers
McCarron played very well last season and is probably the best quarterback going into the UFL’s debut season. He led the league by completing 68.9% of his passes for 7.3 YPA and a 3:1 TD:INT ratio, for a league-high 24 touchdowns. He is locked in as the starter and should be one of the better DFS plays this season.
Michigan Panthers
EJ Perry, Danny Etling, Brian Lewerke
This could be the worst QB room in the UFL, as none of these quarterbacks have shown much upside as passers in their time playing football. Perry has the most experience and is the likely starter in Week 1. We could end up seeing starts from each of these players throughout the season.
DC Defenders
Jordan Ta’amu, Jalan McClendon, Deondre Francois
Ta’amu helped the Defenders to the XFL Championship game last season and will once again be the starter. The Defenders offense is extremely run oriented, so passing volume is not a plus for Ta’amu, but his efficiency was good on his limited passing attempts while he was also in on the running game enough to keep him elevated in fantasy.
San Antonio Brahmas
Chase Garbers, Quinten Dormady, Tom Flacco
The Brahmas had a lot of turnover in both coaches and players, with Wade Phillips taking over as head coach and A.J. Smith as offensive coordinator. Smith helped the Houston Roughneck’s P.J. Walker to big numbers in the first rebooted season of the XFL and even compared Chase Garbers to Walker when announcing him as the starter. With a pass first offense, Garbers has a high ceiling if he can hold onto the job.
Memphis Showboats
Case Cookus, Troy Williams, Josh Love
Head coach John DeFilippo hasn’t officially named a stating QB, but we pretty much know it’s going to be Case Cookus, who was voted as a team captain. DeFilippo’s offense is pass-heavy, but they did not put much air under the ball last year when he coached the New Orleans Breakers. Expect plenty of short passes for Cookus this season.
Houston Roughnecks
Jarrett Guarantano, Nolan Henderson, Reid Sinnett
The Roughnecks aren’t truly the Roughnecks from last season, as the USFL’s Houston Gamblers have rebranded as the Roughnecks, while that team has disbanded. So, the Roughnecks are in the USFL Division instead of the XFL Division.
Head coach Curtis Johnson has named Jarrett Guarantano as the Week 1 starter, but has also indicated that both Henderson and Sinnett will see time on the field. That and Johnson’s conservative play calling should keep this group from putting up big fantasy numbers this season.