At first, indications about the type of player the United Football League was looking for in its inaugural season tended to lean toward a World League of American Football-type player pool.

Then came former NFL tight end Jermaine Wiggins. Wiggins, a productive receiving tight end as late as the mid-2000’s, is trying to get back into professional football through the UFL. Between Wiggins and some of the other tryout-possible names that were thrown in recent weeks, it became clear that the player makeup of the UFL would tend more toward the United States Football League than the WLAF – a good amount of rookies, unsigned NFL players and those trying to make it back to the pros after a lengthy layoff.

Those who remember the USFL will do so as perhaps the closest any non-NFL pro football league has come to playing NFL-caliber ball.

Take a look at the names at Saturday’s UFL Orlando tryout, and judge for yourself if the UFL can come close to the NFL:

• Quarterbacks at Saturday’s camp ran the gambit of professional experience, from longtime NFL backup Quinn Gray, who sports a career NFL passer rating of 91.4 in 12 career games, to Arena Leaguers Brett Dietz, Chris Griesen and Danny Wimprine.
• The wide receiver group includes former first-round draft picks in David Boston (315 NFL catches, but only 4 since 2004), and Travis Taylor (312 NFL catches, but only 1 since 2007), a former NFL starter in Reche Caldwell (who had 61 catches in a season just three years ago) and an ex-Arena League star in Bobby Sippio.
• The rest of the notable offensive players at the tryout include Wiggins (186 catches over a 3-year span from 2004-06, but hasn‘t played in NFL since), former NFL center Alonzo Ephraim and ex-NFL running back LaBrandon Toefield.
• Defensively, UFL tryout players who might be in line for another look include ex-NFL defensive backs Oliver Celestin and Curtis Deloatch and former Notre Dame linebacker Maurice Crum Jr.

This isn’t a list with names like Manning, Fitzgerald and Merriman, but it certainly justifies the need for another professional football league.

Saturday’s workout was just the tip of the iceberg, with other full-league tryouts and other workouts slated for the coming weeks. And, of course, there will be the hundreds of players cut by NFL teams before Labor Day.

But Saturday’s workout warriors prove the UFL’s talent pool will have more than enough quality for its initial campaign.