Fans on social media are trying to make sense of the first trade of the UFL season, announced on the UFL Communications Department X feed: The Michigan Panthers traded WR Marcus Simms to the Houston Roughnecks for OT Cam Carter. A look at it from each team’s perspective:
Houston
The Roughnecks need all the offensive playmakers they can get, and Simms is certainly that. He is tied for the team lead in receptions for Michigan through two weeks. Houston’s receivers have potential but have had too many drops this year. What Simms won’t be able to do is throw the ball to himself; just as Houston has had problems with their receivers, their quarterbacks haven’t always been of great help, either. If nothing else, Simms will be a player defenses will have to respect, which could open things up elsewhere on offense.
Carter is in his third year as a spring league starter at offensive tackle, first for the New Jersey Generals in 2023, then with Houston last year. He was listed as the starting right tackle on the Roughnecks’ week two depth chart, though Houston plays everybody along the line. It’s not as if Houston’s offensive line has improved so drastically that they can afford to trade away starters, so perhaps they like one of their depth players here. Samuel Jackson is listed as the immediate backup at right tackle, and he committed two penalties on Sunday. A name to watch out for is T.J. Bradley, who has been inactive the last two weeks due to injury. He could end up being inserted into the starting lineup. Remember that veteran NFL coach Tom Cable is now running the offensive line, so he’s earned the benefit of the doubt in the moves he makes here.
Michigan
This trade has the smell of something going on behind the scenes that we’re not privy to, but that’s only speculation. We’ve seen some strange trades in spring football and to many, this one is right up there. Both teams traded a starter; Simms, though, played two-thirds of the snaps in week one for the Panthers and was an All-UFL receiver in 2024. One could argue Michigan has enough depth at receiver to offset Simms’s loss – Jaylon Moore, who has been with three NFL teams, now likely takes the place of Simms – but they still traded one of the team’s best offensive players and most frequent targets for…what, exactly?
The eye test says that through two games, Michigan’s offensive line has run blocked extremely well, but has fallen short in pass blocking. In 2023 and 2024, Carter’s pass blocking was graded as slightly above-average by Pro Football Focus. Ryan Nelson and Chim Okorafor are Michigan’s starting offensive tackles, though Okorafor in particular struggled against Birmingham. Brian Dooley, a rookie College Draft pick, is the immediate backup at tackle so if nothing else, Carter adds some experienced depth on the outside with the potential to challenge for a starting role or at least for playing time. It makes you wonder if that loss to the Stallions on Friday, the sixth loss in a row for Michigan to Birmingham, caused the team to press the panic button a bit.
Final Analysis
Houston sure seems like the clear winner of this trade, though if you can squint you can kind of see what Michigan might have been thinking. We’ll know more when C.J. Johnson and Mike Nolan meet with the media this week.
1 Comment
by Ken Granito
Overall, I like the trade. Tough giving away Marcus Simms, but Justin Hall has not been as good as last year. He does not seem to move the chains as you would hope. Marcus Simms is a much more polished receiver than he was two years ago, plus he still has the ability to go deep. Two weeks ago Curtis Johnson told Justin Hall we needed that first down as he saw his team really needed something as they were getting crushed by the Battlehawks. Justin Hall said “Me?”. Not saying Justin Hall isn’t a great have. I have him in Fantasy so I see something in him, but if Simms is not a true #1, he should be soon. As far as Cam Carter goes, I feel Mike Riley and company felt he had some upside which is why he had him at Left Tackle. We shall see. Sometimes when we write we feel a pressure to feel we know the answer and if we don’t know it we call it a questionable trade. We will find out in the long run. e.g. A different podcast would knock Mike Riley for starting one quarterback over another. He felt he knew better because De’Andre Johnson had better stats than his teammate. He did this even though Mike Riley was the only person that drafted him in the legacy UFL. The other QB was Luis Perez. In 2023 Deandre Johnson was the starter, but although he made some gigantic plays, he also could not sustain drives. Mike Riley tried other quarterbacks, but was again told he was jerking DeAndre Johnson around. I waited until Deandre Johnson retired before I FULLY concluded that I was right. It’s shame too, because Deandre Johnson was great with the package Mike Riley gave him. Nobody ever signed him so the 40+ year coach was right and the 27 year podcaster doubled and later tripled down saying Mike Riley does not know what he is doing. There is no need to rush to judgment except when we know something is wrong. I know no one wants to ever be fooled and no one ever wants to be rushed or pressured into making the wrong call. People just presume people will forget so they unafraid to make a bad call. Some of us remember and we remember if we are going to put pen to paper especially when we are looked at as the authority, we need to get it right. You do that and when you don’t know you are not afraid to say more to come. I know I am interested to see how this goes.