When it comes to developmental leagues for professional sports, the NFL is behind the ball.
Aside from college football, there are really no other avenues to develop talent before bringing up a player to the roster.
Major League Baseball has AAA and AA teams they refer to as the farming system.
The NBA has summer leagues that allow them to evaluate if a player is talented enough to be called up to their team.
You very often see diamonds in the rough come out of the developmental leagues for baseball and basketball.
However, for the NFL it just doesn’t work the same way.
There have been attempts to start a developmental league, but football is such a physically demanding sport.
Usually the players who can make it in the NFL weed themselves out in college.
They get selected in the draft, or are signed as undrafted free agents immediately after the draft takes place.
The USFL (United State Football League) is the latest of these developmental leagues to try their hand.
It was originally founded in 1982, but failed by 1986.
Since then, other leagues like the XFL and AAF had moderate success, but eventually fizzled out due to lack of viewership.
Could the Cowboys look to the USFL to fill a roster spot before training camp?
Dallas Morning News writer Michael Gehlken seems to think it’s a possibility.
Let’s be honest with ourselves.
The chances that a true skill player is good enough to take snaps away from what Dallas currently has on the roster are far fetched.
In reality, the only real unit that could use a boost from someone in the NFL is special teams.
Specifically the kicker position.
Let’s look at some options.
Luis Aguilar
We will start with the subject of the tweet shown above, Luis Aguilar.
Although he played in a Cowboys hated city in Philadelphia, Aguilar could come in and settle the current kicking woes for Dallas.
Aguilar is an interesting player because he played dual roles as a kicker and a punter for the Philadelphia Stars this past season.
The Cowboys currently employ veteran punter Bryan Anger and young kicker Tristan Vizcaino.
Anger essentially has his roster spot locked up after another stellar season in 2022, but Vizcaino can be considered just a bridge player this offseason.
Aguilar finished the season with success on 25 of his 29 field goal attempts and 19 of 20 extra points.
He was a perfect 16-16 from under 40 yards away, and showed range with a long of 56 yards.
Matt Coghlin
The USFL’s New Orleans Breakers got a gem from the Michigan State Spartans.
Matt Coghlin has played like a kicker who should have been drafted onto an NFL team.
Coghlin successfully made 18 of his 19 field goal attempts and all 25 of his extra point attempts.
Perhaps most impressive is going 13-13 from under 40 yards, and 2-2 from 50 plus yards out, with a long of 55.
According to some Cowboys insiders, Brett Maher is a very real candidate to return to Dallas for the upcoming season.
Maher saw great success during the regular season, but spiraled out of control in the playoffs.
Should the Cowboys decide to go young at the position, Aguilar and Coghlin are excellent candidates to do so.
