Five things to watch for in Week 1 of the 2025 UFL season

Eric Williams

NFL Reporter

Thus far, the Birmingham Stallions own professional spring football.

The reigning UFL champions — and two-time USFL champs — have lost just four games over the past three years. However, as head coach Skip Holtz prepares his team to defend yet another title, another team lurks in the shadows: the St. Louis Battlehawks.

“We’re building for a championship,” Battlehawks head coach Anthony Becht said. “We’re not rebuilding. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to be better than we’ve been, and we’ve improved every single year. That’s my expectation level for the 2025 season.”

[MORE: What is the UFL? Everything to know about the 2025 United Football League]

St. Louis hits the road to face the Houston Roughnecks to begin UFL Kickoff Weekend on Friday (8 p.m. ET on FOX). It will be the first of many games held on Fridays this year, all of which will be broadcast on FOX.

“We’re excited to see what happens in Houston on Friday night because they (the Roughnecks) are playing one of the teams that has the ability to challenge Birmingham,” Daryl Johnston, the executive vice president of football operations for the UFL, said. “The St. Louis Battlehawks should be one of our better teams, so Houston is going to get a really good feel for where they are coming off that 1-9 season last year.”

Action continues Saturday with a tilt between the Arlington Renegades and the San Antonio Brahmas (4 p.m. ET on FOX). On Sunday, there’s a doubleheader between the Michigan Panthers and the Memphis Showboats to start the day (noon ET), followed by the powerhouse Stallions — the current runaway favorite to win the 2025 title — traveling to our nation’s capital to face the DC Defenders (3 p.m. ET).

That said, here are five things to watch for in Week 1:

1. Battlehawks mum on replacement for QB AJ McCarron

The Battlehawks — who had the best home attendance in the league by far, averaging over 34,000 fans a contest — finished the 2024 regular season 7-3 but lost by double digits in the semifinals at home to the Brahmas.

In response, Becht and general manager Dave Boller improved St. Louis’ depth by adding a handful of former NFL players, including quarterback Max Duggan (Chargers), kicker Rodrigo Blankenship (Buccaneers), safety Nate Meadors (Steelers) and receivers Frank Darby (49ers) and Denzel Mims (Jets). They join last year’s UFL Offensive Player of the Year, Hakeem Butler, and the league’s leading running back in Jacob Saylors.

Defensively, the Battlehawks bring back an All-UFL performer in linebacker Willie Harvey, along with fellow linebacker Mike Rose and edge rushers Pita Taumoepenu, Travis Feeney and Chris Garrett.

Becht has yet to announce a starting quarterback to replace McCarron. One of the top quarterbacks statistically in the UFL last season, McCarron was not brought back. Instead, the Battlehawks held a two-man competition between last year’s backup Manny Wilkins and Duggan. Wilkins was most recently listed as the starter on the team’s official depth chart. Becht also likes San Jose State product Chevan Cordeiro, the team’s third-string quarterback.

All three provide a dual-threat option for the Battlehawks, which is different from the pocket passer in McCarron. Becht added former dual-threat NFL quarterback Seneca Wallace as his coach to help train the trio.

The Battlehawks lost offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski, who went to the NFL as the Detroit Lions‘ offensive assistant. Becht found his replacement in-house, promoting receivers coach Phil McGeoghan to offensive coordinator.

2. QB Kellen Mond headlines former NFL players joining spring league

Most football fans viewed spring football with a healthy dose of skepticism, but with the UFL on solid footing in its second year, more and more talented players are interested in joining the league.

“We’ve got guys coming to our league that, two years ago, there was no way they’d be coming to us,” Johnston said. “You had to be part general manager, part salesman to get people to come our way when we first started out. Our phone rings a lot more now than it did back then. … We’ve earned their faith in what we’re doing, and that’s good.”

To Johnston’s point, the UFL had several former NFL players join teams this offseason, including Mond (Vikings) and Brahmas cornerback Greedy Williams (Browns), Roughnecks quarterback Anthony Brown (Ravens) and offensive lineman Zach Banner (Steelers) and Defenders cornerback Kelvin Joseph (Cowboys).

3. Two new head coaches get first taste of UFL

Johnston had to quickly fill two head coaching vacancies this week when Memphis’ Ken Whisenhunt stepped away for personal reasons and the Defenders’ Reggie Barlow took the head coaching job at Tennessee State. Whisenhunt had taken over for John DeFilippo, who moved on after just one season in Memphis last year.

Quarterbacks coach Shannon Harris was named the interim head coach for the Defenders. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will remain with the team — for now; he’s rumored to be joining Barlow at Tennessee State. However, Johnston said the UFL asked Barlow for some grace — to help them navigate the season before asking for assistant coaches from his former coaching staff to move on to Tennessee State.

Former offensive line coach Jim Turner takes over as head coach of the Showboats. Johnston said Turner was a head coaching candidate for the New Orleans Breakers job in the USFL when Larry Fedora retired after his first and only season as head coach of that team. Johnston also said Turner installed Whisenhunt’s offense from the start of offseason work and is very familiar with it.

Jarren Horton remains the defensive coordinator for Memphis, and Turner has a couple of different options for his offensive play caller, including calling plays himself. Other candidates include receivers coach T.J. Vernieri and offensive guru Noel Mazzone, who recently joined the coaching staff in Memphis and served as the offensive coordinator for the Breakers when Turner was there.

On a similar note, the Stallions are embarking on a season without celebrated general manager Zach Potter. Birmingham lost the engineer of the most talented roster in the UFL when Potter took a job as GM of the Sacramento State college football program this offseason. Only 24 years old, Potter was one of the best talent evaluators in the league, consistently ahead of the curve in recruiting and signing the best talent.

Paul Roell, a longtime scout with the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars, will serve as Potter’s replacement.

“It’s a huge deal,” Johnston said. “He’s coming in with a good perspective. He talked a lot to Zach Potter coming in. Skip [Holtz] has enjoyed working with him, so he has done a nice job.”

4. Improved offensive line play a priority in 2025

The better the offensive line, the more points an offense can put up due to improved pass protection and run blocking.

Scoring was up slightly in the inaugural UFL season last year. Games averaged 43.7 combined points during the regular season, which was more than both the legacy USFL (42.3 combined points) and XFL (42.9) last year.

Johnston said the UFL hired two veteran offensive line coaches in Marc Colombo and Tom Cable, which should help build on the improvement in offensive line play from last season.

Cable joins Roughnecks head coach Curtis Johnson in Houston. The two both played together at Idaho. Colombo will serve as the offensive line coach in St. Louis.

“We’ve got really good offensive line coaches in our league already,” Johnston said. “And then to be able to bring in Mark and Tom is unbelievable. That’s an area where we really want to take that next step.”

Bates turned his impressive performance with the Panthers last season — punctuated by making three field goals from beyond 60 yards — into a starting job in the NFL for the Lions.

In his first season with Detroit, Bates finished 26 of 29 with a long of 58 yards. He joins Brandon Aubrey as kickers who excelled in spring football and made a successful transition to the NFL.

Now that Bates has moved on, who’s next?

Lucas Havrisik (Renegades) and Blankenship (Battlehawks) have already spent time in the NFL. Showboats kicker Matt Coghlin was the most accurate kicker in the league last season, making 94% of his field goals. Strong-legged kicker and YouTube sensation Donald De La Haye returns to the Brahmas after suffering a 2024 season-ending neck injury.

In all, UFL kickers made 83% of their field goals last season and finished 63.4% from 50-plus yards, making five kicks from beyond 60 yards.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him at @eric_d_williams.

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