Players to watch as season kicks off this weekend

When the revived USFL begins its 10-week regular season this weekend, NFL and college football fans will see some familiar names dotting the rosters of the league’s eight teams.

The league kicks off on Saturday when the Birmingham Stallions host the New Jersey Generals in a game broadcast on both NBC and Fox.

A pair of defensive standouts could be among the headliners for Birmingham.

Stallions linebacker Scooby Wright was the Pac-12 defensive player of the year and a unanimous All-American as a sophomore at the University of Arizona in 2014. That year he also won the Bronko Nagurski Award, Chuck Bednarik Award and Vince Lombardi Award after leading the nation in total tackles.

Wright was a seventh-round draft choice of the Cleveland Browns in 2016. He also played in both the AAF with the Arizona Hotshots and the XFL with the DC Defenders.

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The Stallions defense will also feature cornerback Brian Allen, who appeared in three games last season for the Cleveland Browns.

On offense, former Denver Broncos first-round pick Paxton Lynch is part of the Michigan Panthers’ dynamic quarterback duo. He’ll compete for the starting job with Shea Patterson, the No. 1 overall pick in the recent USFL draft, who played collegiately at Ole Miss and Michigan.

Elsewhere, quarterback Jordan Ta’amu of the Tampa Bay Bandits has bounced around the NFL and last played for the St. Louis BattleHawks of the XFL.

The Houston Gamblers have Clayton Thorson as their quarterback. The former Northwestern star was a fifth-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019.

Former Richmond quarterback Kyle Lauletta is expected to start the opener under center for the Pittsburgh…