josh butler nfl

As you may have heard, the U.s.a. Football League is back for Year 2 of its second iteration, with its eight teams kicking off this weekend. That includes the Michigan Panthers, who finished side by side-to-last in Twelvemonth 1. (They won their final game to claim the No. 1 choice in this year's typhoon; that was used on Michigan State offensive lineman Jarrett Horst, who doesn't appear to have made the opening-weekend roster.)

The Panthers kicking off their 2023 campaign confronting the Houston Gamblers in Memphis, Tennessee, at noon Lord's day (NBC); their start home game — in Detroit, no less! — will be April xxx. But before and then, permit's catch up on the league'south changes.

Outset off, pour i out for the Tampa Bay Bandits, who are no more than (at least temporarily) after going four-half dozen final flavour. In their place are the Memphis Showboats (conveying on the legacy of the USFL's original Showboats, who also entered the original league in its second season, 1984).

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Afterward playing every regular-flavour game last twelvemonth in Birmingham, Alabama, the league has added three "local" sites. The Panthers and the Philadelphia Stars will share Ford Field in Detroit. (They'll play their first two games on the road.) The Showboats and the Houston Gamblers will play in Memphis; the New Jersey Generals and the Pittsburgh Maulers will play in County, Ohio (which hosted the playoffs last twelvemonth); and the Birmingham Stallions and New Orleans Breakers will stay in Birmingham.

There has also been some coaching turnover, with the Panthers' Jeff Fisher departing and being replaced by Mike Nolan, the sometime San Francisco 49ers boss nearly notable for trying (and, unfortunately, failing) to bring back suits for NFL caput coaches.

One thing that hasn't changed, though, is that there are plenty of standouts from Michigan colleges suiting up this spring. Seven of the eight franchises have at least ane player from the Mitten State, with only the Gamblers going without. (They don't visit Ford Field this flavor, and so the boo-birds will accept to await till next yr.)

Here's a quick look at the 14 Michigan higher stars looking to break through in the USFL:

Birmingham Stallions

DT Willie Henry, U-Thou

Henry's breakout senior season at Michigan — 6½ sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss in 2015 — earned him a fourth-circular choice grade the Baltimore Ravens in the 2016 typhoon. He didn't play that season, but fabricated their roster in 2017 and 2018, picking up 36 tackles and 4½ sacks in 17 games (with three starts). Later on spending the 2020 season with the 49ers (including ane regular-season appearance), Henry spent time on the practice squads of the Houston Texans, Philadelphia Eagles and the N.Y. Giants in 2021. He signed with the Stallions last April and had nine tackles and a sack.

Houston Gamblers

S Stefan Claiborne, WMU

The Clinton Township Chippewa Valley alumnus switched to safety in his final season in Kalamazoo and had 51 tackles and 2 pass breakups in 13 games, including 4 tackles and a PBU in WMU's 2019 Beginning Responder Bowl loss to Western Kentucky. He signed with the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football game League concluding year, merely didn't make it into any games.

OL Tyler Higby, MSU

Higby is also in his second flavor in the USFL after appearing in eight games concluding season. He bounced around the line during his time in East Lansing, with 30 starts — 21 at left guard, seven at left tackle and 2 at center — among 43 games with the Spartans earlier graduating in 2019. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings afterward the 2020 draft, but was released in the summer after missing 2 weeks with COVID-nineteen.

WR Tyler Palka, SVSU

The former Saline star spent three seasons (including a redshirt year) at Saginaw Valley Country before transferring to Gannon (Pennsylvania) University for the 2016 flavour. In ii campaigns with the Golden Knights, Palka passed for 283 yards and a touchdown, rushed 111 times for 626 yards and six TDs and, after a 2017 move to wideout, caught 50 passes for 662 yards and five TDs. Since then, he bounced near pro football game's pocket-size leagues before landing with the Gamblers last flavour; he caught 18 passes for 188 yards final season.

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Michigan Panthers

CB Josh Butler, MSU

A lockdown corner in East Lansing over four seasons, he redefined the term "Spartan Dawg" at Senior Twenty-four hour period for the 2019 season, bringing his 2 dogs, Roxy and Remi, to the field in place of his parents, who both died during his time at MSU. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, shuttering the MSU facilities, Butler planed to train for the NFL in, he once more relied on his canine companions, competing against them in drills and using them as weights. "I do the majority of my workouts, literally, with them," Butler told the Freep in 2020.

South Delano Loma, U-M

The Detroit Cass Tech star stood out enough during his senior season in Ann Arbor — with 50 tackles, 4½ TFLs and iii interceptions — to go in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft to the Seattle Seahawks. Over four seasons and 42 games with Seattle, Hill had 64 tackles (including 3 TFLs). He signed with the Carolina Panthers in May 2021, just caught COVID-19 and was released in early Baronial 2021.

LB Terry Myrick, EMU

The 23-year-old returns for his 2nd season with the Panthers after recording 27 tackles final year. That followed a career in Ypsilanti in which he racked upwards 260 tackles (including 17 TFLs) over 54 games in five seasons (2017-21), as well as an All-MAC second-team nod in 2020'due south COVID-shortened season.

New Jersey Generals

WR Darrell Stewart Jr., MSU

Stewart turned into a big-play threat in 2019, his terminal flavour in East Lansing, with huge games against WMU (10 catches for 185 yards), Arizona State (nine catches, 121 yards) and Indiana (v catches, 117 yards) before injuries cost him the last month of the flavor. He spent fourth dimension with the Dark-green Bay Packers' and Carolina Panthers' practice squads in 2020 before signing with the Generals last September. In between? He starred in Germany, leading the Dresden Monarchs to the 2021 German Football League title with 82 catches for ane,369 yards and 22 touchdowns. He won't be suiting up this weekend, however he was placed on injured reserve on Thursday.

New Orleans Breakers

K Matt Coghlin, MSU

Michigan State's all-fourth dimension leader in points (382) and field goals (76) got some offseason NFL work final yr, with an invite to the Chicago Bears minicamp in May. He'll exist replacing Taylor Bertolet, who connected on just 75% (ix-for-12) of his extra-indicate tries and 73% of his field-goal attempts.

S Sidney McCloud, Ferris State

A transfer from Northwood Academy before the 2019 flavor, McCloud stepped it up last fall every bit the Bulldogs repeated equally NCAA champs. Despite tearing his labrum before the 2022 season, he played in the national title game, picking off a pass and returning it for a TD in the offset half of FSU's 41-14 mauling of Colorado School of Mines in belatedly December.

CB Alex Thomas, Ferris Land

Thomas starred with the Bulldogs in 2019, with five interceptions during FSU'southward run to the NCAA semfinals, after transferring from Cincinnati. He opted out of the 2020 season, though that was later on canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. Thomas returned to the Bulldogs in 2021 to postal service nineteen tackles and iii interceptions as FSU won the national title.

Philadelphia Stars

DE Ali Fayad, WMU

The MAC Defensive Thespian of the Year in 2021 — he had 17½ TFLs and 12 sacks — got a brief shot with the NFL's Eagles (on the practice squad) before landing with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL for the 2022 season. In four games for the Argos, the Dearborn product had four tackles and a sack en route to a Grey Cup victory.

DT Ralph Holley, WMU

A standout at Orchard Lake St. Mary's and then in Kalamazoo — where he had 16½ TFLs and vi sacks as a redshirt senior in 2021 — Holley landed with the Stars final season. He finished the USFL flavour with 3 tackles and a sack before getting a tryout with the NFL's Bears in rookie campsite terminal summer.

CB Channing Stribling, U-M

Another USFL returnee, Stribling is already getting Defensive Player of the Yr buzz after a first flavor that saw him pick off 7 passes, pause up 11 others, make 11 tackles and even pull off a sack en route to a All-Defensive team nod and a summer tryout with the NFL's Washington Commanders. Information technology was a performance similar to what he did over 4 season (2013-16) in Ann Arbor, where he had 69 tackles, 3½ TFLs a sack and half dozen interceptions in 36 games.

Pittsburgh Maulers

DT Christopher Okoye, Ferris State

The 2017 All-GLIAC first-teamer and Novi Detroit Catholic Fundamental alumnus, who spent fourth dimension in NFL camps with the Cincinnati Bengals and L.A. Chargers, had 25 tackles, including two for loss, over xiii games in his final flavour with the Bulldogs.

WR Hunter Rison, MSU/GVSU

The son of Spartans legend Andre Rison spent but one flavour in East Lansing, hauling in xix catches for 224 yards over 12 games in 2017. He transferred to Kansas State and saturday out the 2018 season, and then was dismissed before the 2019 entrada for hit a woman. After a season at Fullerton College in California, Rison transferred to Yard Valley State, which didn't play during the 2020 flavour due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, Rison had 38 catches for 518 yards and half-dozen touchdowns for the Lakers.

TE Matt Seybert, MSU

The Traverse City St. Francis product was an unlikely Spartan, leaving a scholarship spot at Buffalo to walk on at MSU in 2016, and moving to defensive stop in 2018. But his senior year of 2019, which featured a move back to tight end, featured some standout moments, including a 2-TD game against Northwestern in September. That led "Mr. Reliable" — as he was dubbed by then-teammate Theo Day — to reveal who he relied on: The Human Upstairs. "I mean, I'1000 not gonna prevarication — you guys hear it all the time, people thanking God," Seybert said. "But I've been praying my butt off lately, difficult every bit heck." He finished that season with 26 catches for 284 yards and three TDs and was a 34th-round selection in the USFL typhoon concluding year. With the Maulers, he had five catches for 34 yards and a TD.

Source: https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2023/04/15/2023-usfl-rosters-have-plenty-of-michigan-made-talent/70116951007/

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