Lions Coach Dan Campbell Backs UFL as NFL Minor League System

The NFL doesn’t have a minor league system, and it seems to function just fine without it. After all, it’s the most powerful and profitable professional league on the planet.

But at least one highly-successful NFL coach thinks that using the UFL as an official farm system isn’t a bad idea. Not that he has a vote.   

"Well, look, certainly, I don't make those decisions, right? Nobody cares what I think about that,” Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell told A to Z Sports before adding, “I think it would be great.”

If anything, college football serves as the farm system for the NFL. It’s the lifeblood of the league thanks to the draft stocking rosters each year with fresh, young talent.

But what about those players that slip through the cracks. The undrafted free agents and late bloomers that need some extra seasoning before being NFL ready. Practice squads take up some of the slack, but there are plenty of talented players out there that still love to play football and are hanging on to their NFL dreams. The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball all have minor leagues.

Reasons why UFL would make sense as NFL minor league system

Leagues like that UFL and CFL offer those players organized, professional settings to apply their trades and stay on the radar of NFL scouts. And while there has been talk in the past about setting such “minor” leagues as farm systems for the NFL, there has never really been any movement towards a partnership.

NFL Europe, which debuted as the World League of American Football, was the best example of a training ground for future NFL players, though it dissolved in 2007.

“I go back to NFL Europe was awesome, you know, back in the day, because that was a chance to really develop guys,” Campbell added. “But I still feel like there's a part of it that really is that, I mean, we’ve gotten a couple players out of [the UFL] now, I know other teams have too.”

The Lions have signed several players from the UFL, with a number coming from the Michigan Panthers, who are also their roommates in Ford Field. (The Panthers, along with three other teams, are reportedly being relocated for the 2026 season.) Detroit worked out former Panthers running back Toa Taua a few weeks ago. 

Campbell is a fan of the UFL being in the spring, which he said helps players stay in shape for an opportunity to join NFL teams in the offseason. More than a dozen players have signed with NFL teams since the end of the 2025 UFL season.

The Lions, coming a 15-2 season and the NFC's No. 1 seed, start the preseason Thursday against the Los Angeles Chargers. Detroit opens the regular season Sept. 7 at the Green Bay Packers.