Jason Bean has an intriguing potential career path at his disposal.
The former Kansas quarterback, who is currently on the roster of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent and will begin training camp next week, was selected No. 1 overall in the 2024 UFL College Draft by the Memphis Showboats on Wednesday.
The United Football League, which takes place during the spring, just completed its first season after it had been formed by a merger of two previous professional leagues, the XFL and USFL. Its draft pool consists strictly of players who went undrafted in the 2024 NFL Draft in April.
Last year, three former Jayhawks — Sam Burt, Malcolm Lee and Lorenzo McCaskill — got picked in the XFL’s rookie draft, but according to a UFLboard.com analysis, none of those three and just eight of the 80 players selected in the draft overall actually ended up playing in the UFL. (Granted, half the XFL teams folded as part of the merger.)
Some KU products did take part in the UFL, however. In fact, defensive lineman Daniel Wise was named to the all-league team after his year with the Michigan Panthers, a team on which he was joined by fellow former Jayhawk Bryce Torneden, who had previously played for the Pittsburgh Maulers of the USFL.
Logan Klusman was with the Houston Roughnecks as a long snapper, and Pooka Williams Jr. got signed by the San Antonio Brahmas midway through the year after the DC Defenders released him.
Under head coach John DeFilippo, a longtime NFL offensive coordinator, Memphis went 2-8 in its first season in the UFL. The team takes its branding from one of the franchises in the original USFL of the 1980s.
AP Photo/Darron Cummings
