First-round draft miss headlines list of 19 former San Francisco 49ers getting a shot in the UFL

A new era of spring football will dawn on Saturday when the United Football League begins its inaugural season.

The merger between the XFL and the USFL presents a new opportunity for a host of former NFL players and ones that never quite made it at the highest level.

And for San Francisco 49ers fans wanting their football fix, there will be plenty of familiar names on show as the new league gets off and running, including a former first-round pick and a former head coach.

Former 49ers in the United Football League

Birmingham Stallions

• DE Taco Charlton
• LB Kyahva Tezino

The 49ers had Charton, a former first-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys, on their roster as recently as August. He was released with an injury settlement after being placed on IR. Tezino was signed in July but did not make the team.

Houston Roughnecks

• LB Reuben Foster
• DE Ethan Westbrooks

Here's the headliner. The 49ers made an ambitious gamble on Foster in their first draft under Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, trading back into the first round to take the Alabama linebacker. 

It was a risk that emphatically did not pay off. Foster was excellent down the stretch of his rookie season, but a series of off-field incidents led to his release before the end of his second season. That misjudged bet on character that has helped inform the 49ers' draft approach in the years that have followed. 

Westbrooks, by contrast, was on the 49ers' roster for just two days after being signed in February 2020.

Michigan Panthers

• Head Coach Mike Nolan
• TE Cole Hikutini
• CB Adonis Alexander

Nolan was hired by the Panthers during their first season in the USFL last year, his first head coaching job since being tasked with rebuilding the Niners way back in 2005. Despite a positive second season, Nolan finished 18-37 with San Francisco before being fired. He was 4-6 with the Panthers in 2023.

Hikutini was signed as an undrafted free agent by the 49ers in 2017 but played in only four games. Alexander was signed to a futures contract in January 2021 before being released four months later.

Arlington Renegades

• WR Deontay Burnett
• WR Isaiah Winstead

Burnett spent two months on the 49ers' practice squad during their Super Bowl season in 2019. Winstead may well be more familiar having played for the 49ers last preseason.

D.C. Defenders

• DE Davin Bellamy
• TE Kaden Smith

Bellamy spent only six days on the San Francisco roster in August 2021. Smith was drafted by the 49ers in the sixth round in 2019 but did not make the 53-man roster.

San Antonio Brahmas

• WR K.D. Cannon
• CB Teez Tabor

Cannon was part of the 49ers' first crop of undrafted free agents in 2017 but was cut after rookie minicamp. Tabor signed to the practice squad in 2019 and re-signed with the team in February 2020 before being waived that July.

St. Louis Battlehawks

• RB Wayne Gallman II
• CB Tim Harris
• CB Lavert Hill
• CB Channing Stribling
• DE Pita Taumoepenu
• OL Dohnovan West

If you're a 49ers fan looking for a UFL team to follow, the Battlehawks might be the best bet on this evidence.

Gallman failed to make the roster in 2021 after signing a one-year contract that April. Harris was a sixth-round pick in 2019, playing two games before being released after the 2020 season.

Hill and Stribling are former Michigan corners who each spent time on the 49ers' practice squad. Taumoepenu was a seventh-round pick in Shanahan and Lynch's first draft class. He played six games across his two seasons with the team.

West played the 2022 preseason with the 49ers after signing as an undrafted free agent that May.

The Memphis Showboats are the only team in the UFL without a former 49er on their roster.