By Jordan Long
The United States Football League (USFL) is back. It will start on April 16th. The league features the Birmingham Stallions, Pittsburgh Maulers, Tampa Bay Bandits, Houston Gamblers, New Jersey Generals, Michigan Panthers, New Orleans Breakers, and Philadelphia Stars. The schedule will be a 10-week regular season. The top 2 teams in each division play each other for a berth in the title game which will be held on July 3rd. With that, there is one former NFL 1st-round pick who will be playing, Paxton Lynch.
Lynch was selected in the 12th round by the Michigan Panthers. Lynch started his NFL career with the Denver Broncos. Denver drafted him 26th overall in 2016. Denver was anticipating him to be their franchise quarterback which didn’t pan out. Lynch appeared in 5 total games for Denver from 2016 to 2017. His career record was 1-3 passing for 792 yards and 4 touchdowns. Lynch showed he couldn’t read defenses with 4 interceptions.
The Broncos couldn’t develop Lynch into an NFL quarterback and released him on September 2, 2016. The Seattle Seahawks gave Lynch another chance at his NFL dream, agreeing to a contract with him on January 17th, 2019. It was short-lived. Seattle cut him on August 30th, 2019 but he wasn’t out of a job long as Pittsburgh placed him on their practice squad on September 17th, 2019.
Lynch had his chance to earn a roster spot with the Pittsburgh Steelers during the 2020 preseason. He stayed on the team until the final roster cuts. On September 5th, 2020, he didn’t survive and was once again looking for another job.
Lynch then decided to head north to the Canadian Football League, agreeing to a contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on June 28th, 2021. Lynch didn’t dress in any of the games and Saskatchewan agreed to let him go on February 22, 2022. He was hoping to be drafted by a USFL team.
According to MSN.com, Lynch’s agent, Chris Cabott, said as part of a tweet, “Paxton was not cut for poor performance. We made a life decision and the Riders were understanding. … Sometimes football decisions have to be made to do what is best for a family. We appreciate the Riders and the opportunity that the USFL offers.”
The problem is he hasn’t developed. This could be Lynch’s last chance to show he can be a quarterback and prove that he can be a quarterback in any league. It may not work out. It’s not just throwing the football but studying the playbook, film, and reading defenses. Maybe the USFL is his calling to prove everybody that he can still play. If not, he should just drop football all together.
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