By Nolan Ruth
X – @RealNolanRuth
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With football season coming to an end, many are either well invested in basketball this winter, or looking forward to baseball or softball in the spring. However, a select few are now looking to begin their season on the gridiron in the next two months. The United Football League will kick off its 2026 season on March 27, and with three of the eight teams being relocated in its offseason, the league decided to redraft for the upcoming season.
With several DFW products in the league, I wanted to follow the draft closely. Not just for the local Dallas Renegades, who play their home games at Frisco’s Toyota Stadium, but for the local players whose names I remember from covering them.
The draft involves three phases. The first phase was the quarterback selection on January 9, which gave DFW the biggest story out of the draft. You can read about that in the link below. The first phase also included the January 10 regional allocation selection, in which teams could select three players from their allocated local colleges. (ex. Dallas could select any three eligible players from Baylor, North Texas, SMU, TCU or Texas)
The second phase was the Player Draft which took place on January 13 with the reserved lists, in which any team could protect up to 12 players from their 2025 roster from being taken by another team. The remaining players were then selected in a snake style draft of six segments based on position groups.
The third phase (yet to happen as of this article’s initial publishing) took place on January 14 with any remaining players that were- eligible for the 2025 NFL Draft, 2025 NFL training camp players, eligible for the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft, UFL Showcase attendees, and any other active free agents. Nine free agent players from the Metroplex were selected.
At the end of the draft, ironically the team that is the most DFW represented is the Orlando Storm with five former DFW high school football stars. The hometown Renegades have two. When all was said and done 24 former DFW high school athletes were drafted to UFL rosters.
(Last updated: 9:37 CT, Wednesday, January 14, 2026)
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Below is the list of DFW products selected to UFL rosters for the 2026 season organized by team:
Birmingham Stallions– Hudson Clark, Safety, Highland Park; Tyrese Robinson, Offensive line, McKinney Boyd; Laviska Shenault, Wide receiver, DeSoto
Columbus Aviators– Chuck Filiaga, Offensive line, Aledo; Jalen Morton, Quarterback, Arlington Seguin; Clayton Tune, Quarterback, Hebron
Dallas Renegades– Brendan Hall, Kicker, Springtown; Keaton Sutherland, Offensive line, Flower Mound Marcus; Sam Tecklenburg, Offensive line, Plano Senior High
DC Defenders– Lewis Cine, Safety, Cedar Hill Trinity; Kyron Johnson, Linebacker, Arlington Lamar; Spencer Sanders, Quarterback, Denton Ryan
Houston Gamblers– Kellen Diesch, Offensive line, Byron Nelson; Anthony Hines III, Linebacker, Plano East
Louisville Kings– Jason Bean, Quarterback, Mansfield Lake Ridge; DeVere Levelston, Edge, DeSoto; Corey Mayfield Jr, Cornerback, Forney; Chandler Rogers, Quarterback, Mansfield Lake Ridge
Orlando Storm– Cam Camper, Wide Receiver, Lancaster; Zuri Henry, Offensive line, Wylie; Grayson Murphy, Linebacker, Dallas Bishop Lynch; DaShaun White, Linebacker, Richland; Jarrid Williams, Offensive line, Cedar Hill
St. Louis Battlehawks– Kameron Kelly, Safety, Wylie
