The Stallions enter the 2025 season looking for the rare four-peat after winning back-to-back USFL championships before being crowned the inaugural UFL kings last season. Boasting an absurd 26-4 record as Birmingham’s head coach, Skip Holtz is back for his fourth year with many of the same pieces that made up last year’s championship roster, and offensive continuity will be a theme throughout this preview.
The biggest change — and subsequent question mark — for Birmingham comes under center after losing 2024 UFL MVP Adrian Martinez when he signed a futures contract with the New York Jets in January. Replacing Martinez’s offensive production will be a tall task, but Matt Corral was with the team last season and started three games of his own before Martinez took over full-time, posting a 58.1% completion rate, 8.0 YPA, and a 1:1 TD:INT ratio. Corral wasn’t the explosive runner that Martinez was, but he was capable with his legs, tallying 15/104/0 on the ground in his brief appearances. Based on how Holtz handled his QB room last season, I think Corral will get the Week 1 start and play the entirety of the game, but I don’t think we can rule out seeing Alex McGough at some point. McGough spent two seasons with Birmingham dating back to their USFL days and served as the team’s starter in 2023, where he completed 67.4% of his passes for 7.9 YPA and a 4:1 TD:INT ratio, earning USFL MVP honors that season. McGough may be even more dangerous with his legs, racking up a 103/534/8 rushing line in the USFL. So long as we feel confident one player will be playing the entirety of each game, as Holtz did for Martinez and Corral last season, Birmingham’s QB is going to be one to target in DFS on a weekly basis.
A fixture on the perimeter for the Stallions’ offense the last two seasons, Deon Cain figures to open the 2025 campaign in a similar role after running a route on 70.4% of dropbacks in 2024, 89.5% of which came lined up out wide. Cain led the Stallions in target share (21.3%) and Air Yards share (30.8%), and is a strong candidate to do so again this year. Behind Cain, Birmingham deployed a two-man rotation in the slot last season, featuring Marlon Williams and Amari Rodgers, who ran a route on 56.6% and 44.7% of dropbacks, respectively. Williams and Rodgers would often rotate series, both of them running 96% of their routes inside. The additions of Cade Johnson and Davion Davis, who both profile to fill a similar role, further complicates an already crowded position that will most likely be off limits in DFS formats unless a single player emerges with a full-time role.
Birmingham will have to replace the production lost by offseason departures of Kevin Austin Jr., who ran a route on 57.9% of dropbacks, and Binjimen Victor (39.2%), but have aimed to do so by bringing in fellow Clemson grad Joseph Ngata and 2021 sixth-round draft pick Jalen Camp among others. A 6-foot-3, 217-pound receiver, Ngata is a traditional perimeter wide receiver, which bodes well for him earning immediate opportunities in a room that is full of players who are best suited to operate out of the slot. Still, Holtz is known for using hockey-style line changes at the position, with no receiver besides Cain running a route on more than 57.9% of dropbacks last season. A full-blown WRBC approach isn’t out of the question here.
Jace Sternberger returns for his third season in Birmingham after earning All-USFL/UFL honors in back-to-back seasons. He’s racked up a healthy 58/971/11 receiving line over the last two years, running a route on a team-high 81.5% of 2024 dropbacks, for a 14.4% target share and 17.3% Air Yards share. Sternberger has a safe role in an efficient offense that has led spring football in total points for two straight seasons, making him a strong source of fantasy production who can access a slate-winning ceiling any time he finds paydirt.
Birmingham’s 2025 rushing attack will look like a carbon copy of the one we saw in 2024, returning 100% of their backfield production with the trio of CJ Marable, Ricky Person Jr., and Larry Rountree all coming back. If last season was any indication, and it likely is, we’ll see one of the three end up as a game-day inactive while the other two split opportunities fairly evenly, usually on a series-by-series basis. Last season, Marable led the group in rush share (38.1%) and target share (9.4%), though Person (36.9%, 6.5%) wasn’t far behind. Given the mobility of the quarterback room, we shouldn’t expect a significant RB target rate, and they’ll still have to compete for carries at or near the goal line. But in an offense that should be one of the league’s most efficient units, the backs that are active are going to be fantasy options.
