With plenty of NFL teams having not enough quality quarterbacks on the roster and with Jeff Garcia and Daunte Culpepper generating plenty of buzz in the UFL, interested NFL teams (if there are any) won’t necessarily have to wait until the UFL season ends before making a play at either player.
Per a UFL source, either guy can be released from his UFL contract at the discretion of the Commissioner, along with a cash payment by the player or the interested NFL team of $150,000.
The bigger question is whether any NFL team could or should be interested in either player. We’ve polled a trio of high-level team execs.
One said simply, “Nah.” Another said, “I think it will depend on injuries, but I could certainly see it happening.” A third source said that “it depends.”
As the third source explained it, “Early in the year, vets who are smart and can function on short notice are valuable. However, after eight-to-10 weeks I would go with a young, ascending player who’s getting coached every day in our building.”
So it’s possible that, if either Garcia or Culpepper is going to jump, the time to do it could come well before the UFL season ends.
The other question is whether Garcia or Culpepper would be willing to return to the NFL as backups or whether they want to stay in the UFL as players whose exploits few if anyone beyond the stadiums in which the games are played even notices.