DETROIT >> Kenny Willekes had a three-year, up-and-down run with the Minnesota Vikings after a standout career at Michigan State. His time in the NFL was mostly spent hurt or on practice squads, before his release in 2022.

In December 2023, Willekes signed with the Michigan Panthers of the United Football League, and he didn’t know what to expect as far as the talent level he’d be facing. He quickly got a good idea — that the talent was pretty darn good.

The 2024 season was the first for the United Football League, the end result of a merger between two spring pro ball leagues, the United States Football League and the XFL. The merger cut 16 teams down to eight, and sent the overall talent level skyrocketing as a result of the player attrition.

“It’s really good,” Willekes, a defensive end sporting a long beard that hasn’t been trimmed in more than a year, said earlier his week in a conference call with reporters, speaking of the talent level in the UFL. “We talk about it all the time.

“It’s been growing. This is my second year, and I even see a larger step, a big leap of growth this season. We’ve got a lot more guys that are (or were) on NFL rosters … on rosters, practices squads, bubble guys.

“There is a lot of talent in this league.”

The UFL starts its 2025 season this weekend — assuming all the bargaining issues get resolved, or at least close to resolved, in the next 24 hours, which both sides seem to be suggesting will happen — with the Panthers opening Sunday in Memphis against the Showboats.

The Panthers, in their fourth season of the reboot (two in the United States Football League, two in the UFL, which merged the USFL and XFL), then return home to play the Birmingham Stallions on Friday, April 4, at Ford Field.

There’s a 10-game regular season, with five games set for Ford Field.

Since the reboot of pro spring football, there have been 106 players between the UFL and the old USFL and XFL who have landed in the NFL, mostly via workouts and practice squads. Eleven spring-football players have made 53-man NFL rosters, and that includes former Panthers kicker Jake Bates, who now is kicking for the Lions.

Like Willekes, Panthers head coach Mike Nolan, who previously coached the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL, didn’t know what to make of pro spring football when he got a call three years ago asking if he’d like to coach. He was retired, and enjoying being with his family in Colorado. But he took the leap (it’s worth noting, the pay isn’t bad, $250,000 a year for less than a half year’s work), and he’s glad he did.

“I didn’t know a lot about spring football, other than it was just football,” Nolan, 66, said earlier this week from the team’s training facilities in Texas. He originally signed a two-year deal to coach the Panthers, but agreed to an extension this offseason. “Something inside of me was saying this is an opportunity to give back.

“To be completely honest, I’ve enjoyed this a lot more than I think I’ve given. I’m enjoying the heck out of it.

“They’re all getting up off the mat, and I love that about these guys. It’s been a real pleasure.”

Pro spring football has been a tough sell throughout the years, but the USFL launched four years ago and the XFL (2.0) two years ago at a perfect time, given the vast and rapid expansion of legalized sports betting throughout the United States, including in Michigan.

If you can bet on something, it’ll get eyeballs, and last season, the UFL averaged more than 800,000 viewers for its regular-season games, and averaged more than 1 million for its two conference championship games. Those numbers are much improved over the year before, when the USFL and XFL still were split. And that is welcoming news for the TV networks, who have a significant financial stake in the success of the UFL, especially Fox, which this year is launching a Friday night window for the UFL (the Panthers debut in this window April 4). Games also will air on ESPN and ABC.

But to get the TV numbers, it still has to be a watchable product. Meaning, there has to be significant talent for players out of college eligibility but just on the outskirts of the NFL. The next step for the UFL to continue gaining legitimacy is to get an official affiliation with the NFL, which lacks a minor-league operation (college is seen as that). NFL teams certainly have relationships with UFL teams, It’s not official, but the NFL is watching.

That’s because there’s talent there, which, if he’s being honest, even caught Willekes a bit off guard at first.

“Definitely a little surprised, and a lot of guys you talk to will tell you the same thing,” said Willekes, 27, who played in nine regular-season games for the Panthers last season. “It’s a smaller league, almost looked down on. Then you get there and you realize a lot of these guys are in the same situation you are in.

“There’s a lot of really good football players that aren’t in the NFL due to the roster size. A lot of these guys can play on Sundays, and I’m sure a lot of will be playing on Sundays.”