The 2011 NFL Draft is over, and now the fledgling UFL takes the stage Monday with its own annual draft. The draft will be 10 rounds, meaning the five UFL teams will draft 52 players this evening -- the odd number due to trades.
↵The UFL presents an attractive option for players like Ryan Bartholomew of Syracuse, Joe Lefeged of Rutgers and Mark Herzlich of Boston College who went undrafted by NFL teams. These players can wait for the NFL Lockout to end and hope for offers from NFL teams, even though training camps might wind up being of limited duration.
↵If a player is drafted by the UFL, however, that gives him the option of playing in the UFL for a season and looking for an NFL job for the final few weeks of the NFL season, or possibly a reserve/futures contract for 2011.
↵↵↵"People don't realize that 11 percent of NFL rosters are made up of (former rookie) free agents," said Jerry Glanville, the Hartford Colonials' coach/GM and former Falcons and Oilers coach. "So can these guys play? Without question. In fact, a lot of the free agents that don't make it are with teams that don't have the need they fill. And you look at our team last year at Hartford, with 18 players off the roster playing in the NFL, we're pretty good anyway."
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It will be interesting to see how many UDFA's decide to jump at the chance to play in the UFL.